Spirituality in the Healthcare Workplace

Mehta N. A review of workplace spirituality: identifying present development and future research agenda

Purpose

This study aims to identify the present development of workplace spirituality (WPS) by synthesizing the findings from the WPS literature, identifying gaps and proposing a research agenda.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reviews 72 articles on WPS published in scholarly journals to review their findings on how it has developed over time.

Findings

This review reveals a dearth of qualitative studies like the phenomenological approach, ethnographic research, mixed methodology and experimental research. Besides, the findings reveal various dimensions of spirituality in regard to the workplace. The synthesis reveals a paucity of research to examine WPS at the level of mesospiritual. The findings reveal the scope for cross-cultural studies in WPS that could support and advance inclusion and diversity in the organization. Also, there is scope to examine the relationship of WPS with mental and behavioral health, mindset, innovative behavior, sustainable behavior and trust. Further, the findings reveal the scope of studying the darker side of spirituality in the workplace.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers significant implications to researchers, management and human resource management (HRM) practitioners by providing a holistic understanding of WPS. The literature review findings are limited to the analysis performed on seventy-two papers from Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar databases.

Practical implications

This study provides suggestions and future research directions for researchers, HRM and management practitioners for the inclusion of spirituality. The review findings suggest the implications for management and HRM practitioners by understanding the research done in cognitive science and neuroscience related to spirituality to humanize the workplace. HRM practitioners can draw on the insights offered in this analysis to develop learning and development interventions in support of WPS, e.g. training programs for cultivating mindset through spiritual mentoring.

Originality/value

The study provides WPS development over time. It also provides a comprehensive outlook on WPS that highlights its positive and negative sides. The study contributes to the literature by categorizing the literature and proposing a research agenda to guide future WPS research.

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.

Productivity in religious orders: A management by values applied approach

Purpose

In this theoretical-empirical study, we analyse work methodologies of Spanish Religious Orders, and their relationship with productivity, efficacy and efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

In the literature review we have compiled all the applicable theories. Amongst them, Management by Values stands out and has served as the framework for the hypotheses. To test the latter, we have obtained data from face-to-face surveys, obtaining 112 valid answers. Ordinary Least Squares and Logit Model have been proposed.

Findings

A greater compromise of the individual with the organization generated greater values of productivity, and its higher value in the case of the female Orders when compared to the male Orders.

Research limitations

The conclusions presented here only refer to the data of religious organizations of Málaga (Spain) that have been analysed. Future research should consider the changes brought about by the possible merger of the different Orders and the analysis of the social work of the Church through its non-profit organizations (Cáritas or Manos Unidas).

Practical implications

This study can be translatable to profit-seeking organizations. If work methodology and coordinating tasks are appropriate for religious organizations, then they should also be beneficial for-profit companies.

Originality/value

Management by Values occupies an essential place in the direction and coordination of daily tasks and the life of religious communities. Their levels of productivity, efficacy and efficiency are a result of the strong link that joins the members to the aim of the organization.

Spiritual Care in Holistic Nursing Education: A Spirituality and Health Elective Rooted in T.R.U.S.T. and Contemplative Education

Research to date demonstrates that spiritual care as an integral part of holistic nursing can be hampered if nurses experience insufficient preparation or organizational cultures that fail to prioritize spiritual well-being. In response, the author has developed a three-credit spirituality and health elective in an undergraduate nursing program to help participants address spiritual needs and mobilize spiritual strengths within themselves, patients, and workplaces. Using the T.R.U.S.T. Model for Inclusive Spiritual Care as its framework, the six-unit course draws on contemplative education practices in hopes of preparing a critical mass of nurses with the ability and confidence to foster safe, relevant spiritual care and promote a holistic, patient-centered health care culture. Course participants regularly demonstrate and report deeper self-awareness, skills development, and confidence in relation to spiritual care; the course also has been positively evaluated and fully subscribed over its seven offerings to date, validating its effectiveness in relation to short-term outcomes. Research is needed to evaluate its long-term effectiveness in helping alumni integrate spiritual care into their holistic practice and workplace culture.

Evaluation of Health-Care Providers' Perception of Spiritual Care and the Obstacles to Its Implementation

Objective:

Cancer patients face many health challenges, including spiritual issues. Therefore, an awareness of health-care providers’ perspective on spiritual care provision is important. This study aimed to determine health-care providers’ perception of spiritual care and to examine the individual barriers to its implementation in cancer patients.

Methods:

The present descriptive study included 136 physicians and nurses. The Spiritual Care Survey was used as a research tool. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 20.0.

Results:

In this study, 70.6% of the participants considered spiritual care to be influential in the patients’ quality of life. However, 64.7% had received no spiritual care training, while 82.4% indicated a willingness to attend these courses. Regarding the obstacles to providing spiritual care, the highest and lowest scores, respectively, belonged to the lack of time and the person's reluctance to talk about spiritual issues.

Conclusions:

Spiritual care has not yet found its proper place in the care setting of Iran, and health-care team members do not have sufficient training to provide this kind of care despite their belief in its positive impact on patients’ quality of life.

Perspectives of meaningful work in a high-burnout academic medical center: a discourse analysis

We conducted a discourse analysis of meaningful work from the perspective of healthcare workers in an academic medical center where we previously observed relatively high levels of personal burnout (52.7%) and work-related burnout (47.5%), all based on the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory survey. Burnout is often studied as psychological condition characterized by exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of inefficacy or lack of career achievement, but as demonstrated in this analysis, burnout loses its meaning because healthcare professionals provide a robust account of what makes work meaningful to them despite their prevalence of burnout. Healthcare professionals exhibit a higher level of burnout compared to workforce members in other organizations. Physicians specifically are at high risk for exhibiting symptoms of burnout and work-life imbalances. In addition, burnout manifests itself early in the physician’s career compared other occupations, and in our sample was prevalent among nurses, too. In this discourse analysis of written answers to the survey question, In ten words or less describe what makes your work meaningful? healthcare professionals provide an account of meaningful work that maintains its value in this environment despite the level of burnout, especially when healthcare professionals can use their hard-earned knowledge to make a difference in the lives of people, and observe the results of their work, which is beyond just taking care of patients. Nurses accounted for meaningful work in terms of close connections with patients, while being closely focused on ability to provide professional care and experiencing the outcomes associated with that care, and knowing that they have done a good job. Physicians were patient focused, and they expressed meaningful work in terms of making a difference, and using their abilities to help patients. Basic scientists accounted for meaningful work in terms of their training and abilities to use science for the betterment of others in society.