Development of a Buddhist Spiritual Care Model for People at the End of Life:

Developing a Spiritual Care Model for Clinical Nurses: A Theory Synthesis

This study was carried out to develop a spiritual care model for clinical nurses. This study has used a 3-step strategy proposed by L. O. Walker and K. C. Avant (2019) for theory synthesis. In the second phase of this study, an integrative review was conducted to retrieve and select relevant articles. A total of 227 documents were included for theory construction. After identifying and defining the basic assumptions of the model, the concept of spiritual care was defined as a paradigmatic concept with a holistic approach. Then the metaparadigmatic concepts (ie, human being, environment, nursing, and health) were defined according to the holistic approach. After defining the model care goals, clinical strategies and interventions were defined according to the goals and the concept of health as an outcome of spiritual care. Nurses' clinical roles were conceptualized within the conceptual framework that includes 3 main steps of nursing process: (1) assessment and identification of the client to explore the spiritual perspective; (2) planning and implementing spiritual care; (3) documenting and evaluating spiritual care. This model can tell clinicians what to do in caring for patients, especially chronic and end-stage patients. Therefore, this model could help provide better care for all clients.

Thai Nurses' Experiences of Spiritual Care for Older Adults at End of Life

Most Thai registered nurses who provide end-of-life care emphasize the physical dimension of care rather than spiritual care. There is a need to explore the experiences of Thai nurses who provide spiritual care. The purpose of the study was to explore the experiences of Thai palliative care nurses providing spiritual care for older adults at the end of life. A descriptive qualitative research design was used. The 8 participants were Thai nurses with experience of palliative care in hospitals in the central, northeastern, northern, and southern regions of Thailand. A focus group discussion was used for data collection. Content analysis was used to analyze data. Five themes were as follows: (1) spiritual care was searching for meaning in patients' lives, (2) spiritual self-preparation of nurses for making sense and connecting to patients' spirituality, (3) caring for patients' spiritual needs by recognizing psychological and religious beliefs, (4) facilitating ways to ease patients' suffering, and (5) assuring confidence of patients and relatives for receiving the best care. These findings that should be included in training registered nurses are honoring the patients' lives, addressing spiritual needs to decrease patients' suffering, and enhancing patients' perceptions of care through spiritual self-preparation and spiritual concern of nurses.

The effect of applying Spiritual Care Model on well-being and quality of care in cancer patients

PURPOSE

The study was an attempt to explore the effect of applying spiritual model of nursing care on spiritual well-being and quality of spiritual care in cancer patients.

METHOD

A quasi-experimental study, the present inquiry was carried out with control and intervention groups with participation of 72 patients and 63 nurses in an advanced center in Iran. The Spiritual Care Model (SCM) was designed by the researchers in this study and was performed on the intervention group by nurses after they received proper training. The data were collected using Demographic Information Questionnaire, Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), and Spiritual Care Delivery Rating Scale (SCDRS) in pre-intervention and post-intervention stages and were analyzed with SPSS v.16.

RESULTS

Before the intervention, the means for spiritual well-being and the quality of spiritual care were not significantly different for the intervention and control groups (p < 0.05). After the intervention, i.e., upon discharge from the hospital, the mean of spiritual well-being in the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p < 0.001). Based on the opinions of both nurses and patients, the mean of the spiritual care quality was significantly higher in the intervention group in comparison to that in the control group once the intervention was over (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Given the positive effect of the SCM on enhancing the spiritual care quality and improving the patients' spiritual well-being, it is recommended that the SCM be used as a proper guideline and as a model for boosting nurses' professional performance in spiritual care.