Spirituality and Spiritual Care Practices among Nursing Students: Basis for Comprehensive Program

Abstract

A fundamental component of holistic nursing practice is spiritual care, and how it is provided may depend on one's level of spirituality. Using a modified questionnaire survey design, this descriptive-correlational study sought to evaluate the spirituality and spiritual care behaviors of 175 nursing students from a tertiary institution in Negros Province. The data was compiled using descriptive statistics (mean, percentage, and frequency count). The association between spirituality and the practice of spiritual care was also investigated using Spearman's rank-order correlation. Females (n = 134, 76.0%), second-year students (n = 76, 43.4%), and Seventh-day Adventists (n = 70, 40.0%) made up the bulk of responders. The students' total mean score of 4.29 (SD = 0.558) indicated that they had a strong sense of spirituality. With a mean score of 4.19 (SD = 0.523), they also reported consistently using spiritual care practices in academic and clinical settings, classifying them as "applied every time." Nevertheless, correlation analysis showed no statistically significant relationship between the degree of spirituality and the extent of spiritual care practice, with a coefficient (ρ) of 0.113 and a p-value of 0.137. These results imply that although students are spiritually inclined and frequently engage in spiritual care, the frequency of its use in clinical settings may not be directly correlated with their level of spirituality. The study emphasizes how crucial it is for nursing education to preserve and enhance spiritual care competencies. In order to better understand how spirituality translates into practice, future program assessments might find it beneficial to include and assess additional metrics. This would strengthen the foundation for programs aimed at offering spiritual care training.