Got spirit? The spiritual climate scale, psychometric properties, benchmarking data and future directions

Exploring the influence of the spiritual climate on psychological empowerment among nurses in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Psychological empowerment notably impacts nurses' work engagement and high-quality care. A spiritual climate is a work environment that respects individuals and encourages them to express personal views. Previous studies have shown that a spiritual climate enhances psychological empowerment, however, the relationship between them among the nursing population remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the effect of a spiritual climate on nurses' psychological empowerment and provide a scientific basis for improving psychological empowerment among nurses.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey of 837 nurses from five hospitals in Sichuan Province, Southwest China, was conducted using a convenience sampling method; this survey included nurses' demographic characteristics, the Psychological Empowerment Scale (PES), and the Chinese version of the Spiritual Climate Scale (C-SCS). The data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression.

RESULTS

The sample of 837 nurses attained a psychological empowerment score of (45.49 ± 6.42) and a spiritual climate score of (75.25 ± 16.75). The one-way ANOVA revealed that psychological empowerment scores among nurses varied based on differences in age, department, years of work experience, professional title, level of work intensity, and children (yes/no). Pearson's correlation analyses revealed a significant positive correlation between the spiritual climate and nurses' psychological empowerment (r = 0.564, P < 0.001), and multiple linear regression analysis showed that working in the intensive care unit (ICU), work intensity, and the four items pertaining to spiritual climate influenced nurses' psychological empowerment, explaining 32.6% of the total variance in psychological empowerment.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggested that the spiritual climate perceived by nurses and psychological empowerment are moderately high. Working in the ICU, work intensity, and the four items pertaining to spiritual climate influence nurses' psychological empowerment. Nursing managers should pay attention to the daily work intensity of nurses, especially ICU nurses, organize work tasks reasonably, promote dynamic and balanced nurse human resource deployment based on patients' conditions and nurses' workloads, and implement scientific scheduling plans to establish a positive spiritual climate in the workplace. Additionally, group workshops and systematic training programs can effectively enhance psychological empowerment among nurses.

A Mixed-Method Study on the Assessment of Factors Influencing Nurses' Provision of Spiritual Care

The purpose of this study was to explore factors that influence nurses' beliefs about offering spiritual care.

STUDY DESIGN

A mixed-method study design, incorporating both quantitative (questionnaire) and qualitative research, was used for this study (focus group discussion).

METHODS

The questionnaires were completed by a convenience sample of nurses and their assistants working in two public hospitals. These questionnaires included the Greek versions of the FACIT-Sp-12, SCIPS, NEO-FFI, and the Spiritual Climate Scale, as well as a specially designed questionnaire to gather demographic, socioeconomic, and professional information about the study population (SCS). Three nurses and two nursing assistants who worked in public hospitals and were chosen through purposive sampling made up the sample for the qualitative study. In utilizing inductive content analysis methodology, a qualitative analysis was carried out.

RESULTS

Greek nurses frequently offer spiritual care to their patients, primarily existential spiritual care. It was discovered that the spiritual climate, the nurses' positive coherence, and their educational level all exert a favorable effect on total spiritual care. Three categories and seven subcategories were used to describe the participants' prior experiences with spiritual care.

CONCLUSIONS

Greek nurses frequently offer spiritual care to their patients, and both internal and external factors influence their attitudes in this regard.

Factors Affecting Greek Nurses' Caring Behaviors: The Role of Nurses' Spirituality and the Spiritual Climate of Hospitals

The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of nurses' personality, spirituality, and spiritual care in nurses' caring behaviors. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in two hospitals, located in Athens, Greece. Data were collected by a four-part self-reported questionnaire. The results showed that work experience seems to play an important and positive role on nurses' caring behaviors, and all personality traits, except neuroticism. Also, spirituality and spiritual climate are significant factors predicting nurses' caring behaviors. Moreover, a hospitals' spiritual climate can positively influence all domains of nursing care (p < 0.001). Nurses spirituality (faith) and hospital spiritual climate can also positively influence nursing care.

Promoting Spiritual Well-Being Among Nurses

Health care organizations are facing the fallout from inadequate nurse staffing in addition to the emotional and spiritual tolls of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations must strategically differentiate themselves by novel methods of recruitment and retention, including care of the nurse as a whole person. Tactical strategies can be implemented by nurse leaders to promote the spiritual well-being of the nursing workforce. These strategies include incorporating spirituality and soft skills into nursing orientation, developing and providing interventions to support spiritual well-being, and implementing methods to provide spiritual care of patients by nurses.

An Initial Approach to Increase Job Satisfaction Through Workplace Spirituality

Job satisfaction is a widely discussed topic in work psychology, but what might be the contributions of recent discussions of workplace spirituality? This research allows a qualitative measure of workplace spirituality relevance by workforce perspective that can be reproduced in other organizations through a questionnaire application. The spiritual factors of the workplace were classified according to the Kano model that identifies the potential for actions and investments to be transformed into job satisfaction. In this application, it was identified that investments in the coherence and purpose of work factors can generate more than proportional satisfaction in the individuals of this organization. The identity, values, cohesion, meaning, and climate of work factors could generate a proportional satisfaction to the investments. The inner life and community factors cannot generate satisfaction, but when investment levels in these factors did not meet the expectations, it potentially generates dissatisfaction. Finally, investments in belonging, connection, and environmental factors were indifferent to the satisfaction level in this organization. The researchers also pointed out opportunities of investments to the organization.

Work engagement of nurses and the influence of spiritual climate of hospitals: A cross-sectional study

AIM

This investigation was endeavoured to study the influence of the hospital's spiritual climate on nurse's work engagement in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND

Creating a safe clinical environment for nurses to express their spirituality despite preferences or religiosity is essential to increase work productivity, satisfaction and commitment.

METHOD

This quantitative and cross-sectional research surveyed a convenience sample of 302 nurses employing the 'Utrecht Work Engagement Scale' and 'Spiritual Climate Scale'.

RESULTS

The overall average of the respondents in work engagement was 4.33 (SD = 1.10), with more nurses reporting high or very high work engagement (53.7%). The hospital, age and spiritual climate were recognized as significant predictors of 'vigour'. The hospital's spiritual climate was the only significant factor influencing nurses' 'dedication'. The hospital and spiritual climate significantly influenced the variable 'absorption'.

CONCLUSION

Having a positive hospital spiritual climate was associated with better work engagement among nurses.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

The findings underscore the significance of ensuring that hospitals have positive spiritual climate and a clinical area that respects, accepts and welcomes various spirituality of nurses. Therefore, nurse managers should ensure that the spirituality of nurses has a safe home in the hospital.

Examining Associations With Mental, Well-Being and Faith in Nurses (LIFT)

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to explore the association between religion/spirituality (r/s) and mental health outcomes in hospital-based nursing staff.

BACKGROUND

The relationship between r/s and health has been studied extensively. Most frequently, r/s has been studied in association with mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and distress among patients. However, hospital-based nurses suffer from the mental health effects of working in high-stress work environments. To date, little research has focused on the relationship between r/s and mental health outcomes in nurses.

METHODS

A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 207 nurses from 6 community hospitals.

RESULTS

Approximately half of the nurses sampled identified as religious, whereas nearly 75% identified as spiritual. There were significant associations between measures of r/s and mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and mental well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

This whole-person assessment of nurses may inform future retention and engagement strategies focused on faith-based interventions.

Spiritual Climate as is Perceived by Greek Clinical Nurses. A Validation study

Introduction:

Organisational climate generally refers to issues such as information sharing climate, appreciation and recognition, concern for employee well-being, ethics and quality performance. In hospitals, it represents the shared beliefs and values that may affect the quality of care in health care groups and which could be managed to improve the quality of care.

Aim:

Aim of the study was the translation of the Spiritual climate Scale (SCS) in Greek language and the validation of the scale for the Greek population.

Methods:

The SCS is an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that contains four, five-point Likert scale, closed questions. The questionnaire was translated into Greek language and then back translated in the English in order to be checked for any inconsistencies. The sample of the study was 275 nurses, working in two public hospital in Athens. Exploratory factor analysis, with principal components analysis was performed for checking the construct validity of the questionnaire. The test–retest reliability and the internal consistency were also examined. Statistical analysis performed by the use of SPSS 25.0. Statistical significance level was set at p=0.05.

Results:

From the total 275 of the participants 238(86.5%) were women and the mean age was 43.8±8.7. The final Greek version of the questionnaire includes all of the four questions and one factor was exported from the exploratory factor analysis. The Cronbach-α coefficient was 0.902 for the total questionnaire.

Conclusions:

The SCS is a valid and reliable questionnaire that can be used for assessing spiritual climate in Greek clinical areas.

Relationship between burnout and intention to leave amongst clinical nurses: The role of spiritual climate

AIM

This study aims to identify the role that spiritual climate has in reducing burnout and intentions to leave amongst clinical nurses.

BACKGROUND

Both shortages and the high turnover of nurses are challenging problems worldwide. Enhancing the spiritual climate amongst nurses can enhance teamwork, organisational commitment and job satisfaction and can play a role in reducing burnout and turnover intention.

METHODS

A total of 207 clinical nurses working at a tertiary university hospital were included in this cross-sectional, single-site study. Independent-samples t test and ANOVA, Pearson correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to explore the relationships amongst related factors.

RESULTS

Most clinical departments showed a moderate spiritual climate (60.24 ± 0.82) with high job burnout (33.62 ± 0.28) and turnover intention (2.37 ± 0.57). A good spiritual climate was correlated with high job satisfaction (r = 0.412, p < 0.01), low burnout and turnover intention (r = -0.423, p < 0.01 and r = -0.292, p < 0.01, respectively). Spiritual climate could also indirectly influence nurses' job burnout and turnover intention (R²  = 10.31%).

CONCLUSIONS

Different departments have different spiritual climates. The findings from this study indicate that spiritual climate may impact nursing burnout and turnover.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Using a spiritual climate scale provides health care decision-makers with clear information about staff spirituality well-being. Interventions to improve spiritual climate can benefit teamwork in clinical departments.

Workplace Spiritual Climate and Its Influence on Nurses’ Provision of Spiritual Care in Multicultural Hospitals

Background: Spiritual care is a growing field of interest in the healthcare industry in Saudi Arabia, one that is largely defined by the religious and cultural context of the country that has a rich and strong backdrop. Workplace spiritual climate may have a significant impact on nurses’ ability and willingness to provide spiritual care. This study aims to examine the influence of workplace spiritual climate on nurses’ provision of spiritual care. Methods: A convenience sample of 918 nurses employed in seven public hospitals in Saudi Arabia was surveyed in this cross-sectional study using the Spiritual Climate Scale (SCS) and the Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale (SCIPS). Results: The overall mean in the SCS was 64.58 (SD = 24.60), whereas the overall mean in the SCIPS was 56.83 (SD = 9.46). Nurses with Saudi nationality, with Islamic faith, with administrative functions, and with higher years of experience as a nurse reported better perceptions of workplace spirituality. Hospital, position, years of experience in the present hospital, and the hospital’s spiritual climate were identified as significant predictors of the nurses’ spiritual care interventions provision. Conclusions: The results of the study support the importance of having good workplace spiritual climate as it impacts the nurses’ provision of spiritual care interventions.