The view of key stakeholders on spirituality and spiritual care: Nigeria as a case study

Abstract

In Nigeria, the issue of meeting spiritual needs of the patients as a component of holistic nursing care is underutilized.  There is huge confusion among the nurses regarding the meanings of spirituality and because of this confusion and the sensitivity of religion in the nation generally, no nurse wants to talk of the spiritual needs of the patients. However, without the components of spiritual care, holistic nursing care will always be incomplete. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which nurse educators, nurse clinicians and nursing students understand the concept of spiritual care within the context of holistic nursing care. The study employed a descriptive research design to conveniently recruit 250 nurse educators, nurse clinicians and nursing students across five geopolitical zones. Thus, one accredited department of nursing science was selected per zone. Two structured questionnaires (“Spiritual Care Competence Scale” and “the Role of Spirituality in Nursing Practice/Spirituality and Spiritual Care Scales”) were used for data collection. The data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially as deemed appropriate. The study shows that a significant association existed between respondents’ qualifications, and their ability not to impose their own spiritual/religious belief on a patient (p<0.05). In addition, the importance of spiritual care in meeting the holistic nursing needs of the patients was observed. So it is crucial that for the knowledge of the nurses in Nigeria either as educators or clinicians or nursing students on spirituality and spiritual care to improve, there must be a review of training curriculum for integration of spiritual care into it for both training and retraining programmes so adequate knowledge, skills and positive attitude toward patient spirituality will lead to improved competence and better outcomes in spiritual nursing care.

Keywords: Nurse clinicians, nurse educators, nursing practice, spirituality, spiritual care