SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE AND NEEDS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NURSING FACULTY IN A CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY AND A STATE UNIVERSITY

Abstract

To care for the whole person, nurses must provide spiritual care (Narayanasamy, 1995; Wright, 1998). The inability to consistently and effectively provide spiritual care has been linked to the lack of educational preparation in our basic nursing programs (Govier, 2000; Piles, 1990). This lack of preparation is unacceptable because patients experiencing serious illness, life transitions, loss, grief, or pain have an increased awareness of spiritual needs (Charlton, 1992; Clark, Cross, Deane, and Lowry, 1991; Narayanasamy, 1995; Taylor, Highfield, and Amenta, 1999). During these experiences, patients are likely to interact with nurses—professionals that advocate holistic care (Martsolf and Mickley, 1998; McSherry and Draper, 1998). Nurses must be prepared to provide spiritual care since spirituality is an integral part of being human. Nurses are not likely to receive this preparation unless faculty value spiritual care. Faculty who are aware of spiritual needs, value spiritual care, and have the skills to provide spiritual care are more likely to teach those skills. They are also more likely to role model or encourage the provision of spiritual care during clinical experiences. For some faculty, teaching spirituality may seem inconsistent with the dominant paradigm of scientific based practice (Govier, 2000). Nursing faculty at state universities may question whether the overt inclusion of spiritual care in the curriculum is appropriate or permissible. The study reported in this paper explored the spiritual perspectives and identified the spiritual care practices of nursing faculty in a state university and a private Christian university. Along with describing the findings, spirituality related to patients, nurses, and nursing education is discussed.

Notes

∗ = significant at .05 level;

∗∗= significant at .01 level