It is said that nurses are the backbone of the medical profession. They are the ones who provide the day-to-day care for patients, and they are often the first point of contact for patients and their families. Nurses play a vital role in the provision of spiritual care to patients. Spiritual care is an important part of the nursing care plan. It is the process of providing care and support to patients in a way that meets their spiritual needs. Spiritual care is not about converting patients to a particular religion; it is about providing support and understanding to patients who may be experiencing a crisis of faith. Nurses can provide spiritual care in a number of ways. They can provide support and comfort to patients who are experiencing pain or suffering. They can offer words of encouragement to patients who are struggling with their health. They can also provide practical support to patients who are dealing with the practicalities of their illness. Nurses need to be aware of the different spiritual needs of their patients. They need to be able to identify when a patient is in need of spiritual care. They also need to be able to provide the care in a way that is respectful of the patient’s beliefs and values.
Healthcare organizations are increasingly concerned with spirituality. According to the World Health Organization, each person should have a complete and complete set of health care needs, which include physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. When you do not provide spiritual support to patients, you are missing out on an important opportunity to improve their care. There is a significant lack of research on ways to develop spiritual care skills in nursing students. Spirituality is a dynamic, and inextricable aspect of humanity in which people strive for meaning, purpose, and transformation. Religion, beliefs, values, traditions, and practices are all important components of spirituality. Spirituality/religion has been linked to cancer and chronic kidney disease patients, according to studies.
Patients do not expect spiritual care from nurses in the same way that nurses do not expect in-depth spiritual care. According to studies, spirituality and religious beliefs have a positive impact on health and well-being. A spiritual distress is a state of suffering caused by an impaired ability to connect with self, others, the world, and a higher power to create meaning in life. Patients in a hospital who receive spiritual care are happier with their stay. Since the 1970s, spirituality has grown in popularity at an astonishing rate. According to studies, nurses want to provide spiritual care, but there are some barriers to doing so. Nurses strongly attributed the lack of private space as one of the reasons for this.
It was also common to blame inadequate or inadequate training (both domestically and internationally). Having completed spiritual care training, nurses are more competent and ready to deal with spiritual issues (Ruder, 2013) Several other studies have found that there is insufficient training in the United States and elsewhere. The HOPE (Anandarajah) and the SPIRIT (Hight, 2001) are two tools in the field of spiritual history. For more than a decade, the FICA (Faith, Importance, Community, Address in Care) tool has been one of the most widely used. A spiritual assessment assists in the development of a spiritual care plan and a spiritual goal for the patient, as well as the presentation of necessary spiritual resources. Patients frequently request that the nurse pray with them. If the nurse is uncomfortable, she or he may make a referral to a religious leader.
Nurses frequently enter the field to provide compassionate care to others. When the nurse provides a higher level of care for the clients served than the client himself, it is difficult for him. Eating, drinking, exercising, sexual activity, smoking or drugs, music, yoga, art, or other forms of recreation are just a few of the ways that healthcare professionals deal with the stresses of their daily job. Religious and spiritual disciplines may also offer healthy and useful options. According to research, nurses and physicians should provide spiritual care.
When a patient practices spirituality, such as prayer or meditation, the nurse assists him or her in providing spiritual care.
Contact the religious leader (with permission) of that church or institution to make the nurse aware of the situation. It is critical for the patient’s family to remain at the bedside while he or she is in critical condition, but this is not an option.
This critical member of your interdisciplinary healthcare team specializes in healing the whole person, body, and soul, visiting patients and their families to offer spiritual support to people of all faiths, no religion, while also demonstrating compassion and understanding.
According to Box 6.iii, three important aspects of communication appear to be related to spiritual care: attentive listening, non-verbal communication, and the use of presence. It provides a brief definition of attentive listening. There is more to attentive listening than just focusing on what is being said.
