Spiritual care: what are the nursing students say about it?

Introduction: Spiritual care is an integral component of holistic patient care, and nurses are strongly encouraged to incorporate it into their caregiving practices. Regrettably, in the clinical setting in Malaysia, this crucial aspect of care often receives inadequate attention. The conventional approach continues to be the prevailing norm. Since nursing students are important healthcare team members in the future, knowing their views on spiritual care helps measure their ability to provide effective care to patients. Thus, this research aimed to explore nursing students’ perceptions and experiences of spiritual care. Materials and methods: This research applied a qualitative research design with eight undergraduate nursing students as the participants. They were recruited using the purposive sampling technique from April 2023 till June 2023. Data were collected using semi-structured, in-depth and audio-recorded face-to-face interviews. All of the interviews were subsequently transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: There were three themes identified: 1) The meaning of spiritual care; 2) Embracing the benefits of spiritual care; and 3) The challenges of delivering spiritual care. Conclusion: This study discovered that undergraduate nursing students have different perspectives on spiritual care for patients based on their own beliefs and values. They also experience various challenges in delivering spiritual care to the patients. This study has provided greater insight into the solutions to promote the practice of spiritual care in the clinical setting.

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