Nursing Academicians’ Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual Care and Their Competence in Spiritual Care

DOI:10.17681/hsp.454678 Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe nursing educators’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care and their spiritual care competence, and to determine the relationship between them. Materials and Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted between Jun and September 2017. The sample was composed of 202 academicians from four universities. For data collection, the nursing academician information form, Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale, and the Spiritual Care Competency Scale were used. For data analysis, the descriptive statistics, the test of significant difference between two means, Pearson Correlation Analysis, the Mann Whitney U Test, and Kruskall Wallis Analysis were used. Results: The mean age of the academicians was 36.14 ± 8.91 years, and 96% were female. All stated that it was necessary to give spiritual care to patient individual and to provide education in spiritual care in nursing training. According to their statements, 68.8% of the academicians included the topic of spiritual care in their course content and 56.4% included nursing diagnoses relating to spiritual care in their lessons, but 44.6% did not use the related diagnoses when preparing students’ nursing care plans. A medium level positive correlation was found between item scores on two scales (r=0.404, p<0.001). The mean two scales item scores of those with the academic status of assistant professor those who advised students on giving spiritual care to patients during clinical practice, and those who included spiritual care and nursing diagnoses regarding spiritual care in their course content were found to be statistically significantly higher (p<0,05). Conclusion: It was concluded that nurse academicians who had active responsibilities for preparing and presenting educational content on spiritual care, which is a part of holistic care, had a broad view of spiritual care. A need was felt for developing both perceptions of competence in providing this care and perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care