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Objectives: This pilot study explores how healthcare leaders understand spiritual care and how that understanding informs staffing and resource decisions., Methods: This study is based on interviews with 11 healthcare leaders, representing 18 hospitals in 9 systems, conducted between August 2019 and February 2020., Results: Leaders see the value of chaplains in terms of their work supporting staff in tragic situations and during organizational change. They aim to continue to maintain chaplaincy efforts in the midst of challenging economic realities., Conclusions: Chaplains' interactions with staff alongside patient outcomes are a contributing factor in how resources decisions are made about spiritual care.

Hospital chaplaincy and spiritual care services are important to patients' medical care and well-being; however, little is known about healthcare providers' experiences receiving spiritual support. A phenomenological study examined the shared experience of spiritual care between hospital chaplains and hospital-based healthcare providers (HBHPs). Six distinct themes emerged from the in-depth interviews: Awareness of chaplain availability, chaplains focus on building relationships with providers and staff, chaplains are integrated in varying degrees on certain hospital units, chaplains meet providers' personal and professional needs, providers appreciate chaplains, and barriers to expanding hospital chaplains' services. While HBHPs appreciated the care received and were able to provide better patient care as a result, participants reported that administrators may not recognize the true value of the care provided. Implications from this study are applied to hospital chaplaincy clinical, research, and training opportunities.

Person-centred health and person-centred care have gained prominence across the UK following the publication of reports on public inquiries exploring failings in care. Self-awareness and participation in reflective practice are recognised as vital to supporting the person-centred agenda. This article presents an education framework for reflective practice, developed and used in one NHS board in Scotland, and based on the tenets of the clinical pastoral education movement. Providing an insight into the usefulness of a spiritual component in the reflective process, the framework provides an opportunity for nurses and other healthcare professionals to examine the spiritual dimensions of patient encounters, their own values and beliefs, and the effect these may have on their practice.

Background: Little research has explored parish nurses' perceptions of their preparation for their new role transition. This article studied role preparation from the perspective of practicing parish nurses., Methods: A qualitative descriptive design used in-person interviews and open-ended questions. Interviews with practicing parish nurses within 2 years of attending a training course were transcribed and coded. Participants shared their perceptions of role preparation and the interventions that were most helpful in transitioning to the role of parish nurse., Results: Participants identified some deficiencies in training that led to feelings of inadequacy in areas such as spirituality and community nursing knowledge. Lack of role models and inadequate practice hours were challenges for role transition. Group activities during training and peer support were cited as helpful interventions for the new parish nurse., Conclusion: The findings will help parish nurse educators to understand factors that affect role transition for parish nurses and contribute to the improvement of training models to support successful role transition.

This article reports on a phenomenological study undertaken to explore the meaning of spiritual care as described by a group of palliative care professionals. The research process was informed by van Manen's (1990) hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Eight palliative care professionals (nurses, complementary therapists and pastoral carers) were recruited from a community palliative care agency in Melbourne, Victoria, which provided home-based palliative care. All participants were female and came from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Data were collected by in-depth conversational interviews and were analyzed thematically. Two themes emerged: 'a living nexus between spiritual care, spirituality and holism' and 'a world of relationships'. The findings of the study point to the need for healthcare professionals to incorporate spiritual care guidelines into practice in order for palliative care to be truly representative of holistic health care.

In many countries with highly developed health care systems, significant improvements in end-of-life care are strongly recommended. Up to the present, the assessment of perceived deficits predominantly reflects the point of view of experts in the palliative and hospice movement, with very little being known about the perspective of other professionals. The aim of this study was to assess the points of view of a wide range of different health care providers who treated or interacted with palliative care patients. The authors subsequently performed 597 semistructured telephone interviews with a wide range of German health care professionals. Overall, the assessment of the current situation was better than expected, although statistically significant differences existed among the groups surveyed. However, there is an unquestionable need for improvement, although opinions regarding the extent of these deficits depend significantly on the individual respondents' roles and professional orientation.

Aim: The aim of this study was to generate a deeper understanding of the factors and forces that may inhibit or advance the concepts of spirituality and spiritual care within both nursing and health care., Background: This manuscript presents a model that emerged from a qualitative study using grounded theory. Implementation and use of this model may assist all health care practitioners and organizations to advance the concepts of spirituality and spiritual care within their own sphere of practice. The model has been termed the principal components model because participants identified six components as being crucial to the advancement of spiritual health care., Design: Grounded theory was used meaning that there was concurrent data collection and analysis. Theoretical sampling was used to develop the emerging theory. These processes, along with data analysis, open, axial and theoretical coding led to the identification of a core category and the construction of the principal components model., Methods: Fifty-three participants (24 men and 29 women) were recruited and all consented to be interviewed. The sample included nurses (n=24), chaplains (n=7), a social worker (n=1), an occupational therapist (n=1), physiotherapists (n=2), patients (n=14) and the public (n=4). The investigation was conducted in three phases to substantiate the emerging theory and the development of the model., Results: The principal components model contained six components: individuality, inclusivity, integrated, inter/intra-disciplinary, innate and institution., Conclusion: A great deal has been written on the concepts of spirituality and spiritual care. However, rhetoric alone will not remove some of the intrinsic and extrinsic barriers that are inhibiting the advancement of the spiritual dimension in terms of theory and practice., Relevance to Clinical Practice: An awareness of and adherence to the principal components model may assist nurses and health care professionals to engage with and overcome some of the structural, organizational, political and social variables that are impacting upon spiritual care.

In order to care ethically nurses need to care holistically; holistic care includes religious/spiritual care. This research attempted to answer the question: Do nurses have the resources to offer religious care? This article discusses only one aspect--the provision of religious care within the Taiwanese health care system. It is assumed that, if hospitals do not provide enough religious services, nurses working in these hospitals cannot be fully ethical beings or cannot respect patients' religious needs. The relevant literature was reviewed, followed by a survey study on the provision of religious facilities and services. Aspects considered are: the religions influences in and on Taiwanese society; the religious needs of patients and their families; strategies that patients use to enable them to cope with their health care problems; professional motives for attuning to patients' religious needs; and hospital provision for meeting the religious and spiritual needs of patients. A survey of nursing executives showed differences between religious service provision in hospitals with and without a hospice ward. The practical implications for hospital management and nursing practice are discussed.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore spiritual care for dying nursing home residents from the perspectives of registered nurses, practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, advanced practice nurses, and physicians. Five major themes emerged: honoring the person's dignity, intimate knowing in the nursing home environment, wishing we could do more, personal knowing of self as caregiver, and struggling with end-of-life treatment decisions. Spiritual caring was described within the context of deep personal relationships, holistic care, and support for residents. Spiritual care responses and similarities and differences in the experiences of participants are presented. Education and research about how to assist residents and families as they struggle with difficult end-of-life decisions, adequate time and staff to provide the kind of care they "wished they could," and development of models that honor the close connection and attachment of staff to residents could enhance end-of-life care in this setting.

Spirituality has been the subject of numerous journal articles and books in recent years. Research into this topic has been conducted in many spheres of nursing practice with the notable exception of military nursing. This article goes a small way to addressing the apparent lack of research into spirituality in a military nursing setting by summarizing the findings of one study into this significant area of nursing care. The findings are derived from a mixed method quantitative/qualitative study of registered nurses in the Royal Australian Air Force. The major finding indicated that two distinct concepts of "family" define the way in which this small group of nurses perceive, assess and implement care for the spiritual needs of their patients. These concepts comprise a traditional family structure and an extended military family structure that includes the person's unit and comrades-in-arms.

This article reports findings from a study in the UK which investigated the perceptions and practice of spiritual care in care homes for older people. Over 1500 homes were sent a postal questionnaire and a response rate of 42% was achieved. Home managers were found to have a broad understanding of spiritual care, according a spiritual dimension to a range of tasks that were social and emotional in nature. Most managers felt that responsibility for providing spiritual care lay with the home itself, rather than other parties, although concerns were expressed over the ability of some staff to deliver this care. Many homes had input from religious providers via regular services and visiting personnel. There was a perception of a heightened level of spiritual need for dying residents, although it is suggested that physical pain continues to dominate the focus of care at this stage.

Recent years have seen a resurgence of the health and healing role of the church. Nurses have been involved in this movement through the development of health ministry and parish nursing with a growing number of nurses volunteering their services to congregations. This program evaluation research study compares two programs (one in an urban environment and the other in a rural environment) that use nurses who volunteer in congregations to promote health and well-being. The study found that the two programs differed significantly with regards to the location where nurses provided care. The urban nurses provided most service at the church, while the rural nurses provided service through home visits and phone calls as well as at the church. The groups were also significantly different in the ethnicity, education, work status, and age of the nurses. Further differences were also found in the type of services the nurses provided; for example, the rural nurses were more involved in case management and practical assistance than their urban peers. The two groups were similar in the program support they valued and in their appreciation of the opportunity to integrate their faith and their nursing practice.