A Qualitative Research on Spiritual Counseling and Guidance Services in Hospitals (Kayseri Case)

Presidency of Religious Affairs, besides mosque services, started to provide spiritual counseling and guidance services in various institutions as a result of giving importance to religious services outside the mosque. One of these institutions is hospitals. Although the professional spiritual counseling and guidance services offered in hospitals have been carried out in various countries for a long time, it is more new in our country. In 2015, in the form of pilot implementation in hospitals, the implementation of spiritual counseling and guidance was initiated in state hospitals in six cities. In 2016, the number of these cities increased to 14. The main aim of this research is to reveal the opinions and experiences of spiritual counselors involved in the spiritual counseling and guidance practices in the training and research hospital in Kayseri which is one of the six pilot cities of the spiritual counseling and guidance practices. Qualitative research model was used in the study. Qualitative data were collected within the framework of the semi-structured interview protocol. In this framework, in-depth interviews were conducted with all spiritual counselors working in Kayseri Training and Research Hospital. Descriptive analysis technique was used in the analysis of the obtained data. The findings were evaluated in the light of the literature, and various suggestions were given in the conclusion part. When we look at the spiritual counseling and guidance services provided by spiritual counselors in the hospital in general, it can be said that the practice is tried to be done in a professional manner by taking into consideration the consulting dimension of this service and not by the classical preaching and guidance logic