Bridging the gap: Normalising spiritual care in undergraduate nursing education: A review of qualitative research

IF 3.3 3区医学 Q1 NURSING

Nurse Education in Practice Pub Date : 2025-04-08 DOI:10.1016/j.nepr.2025.104359

Sherphard Chidarikire , Melsina Makaza , Tosin Popoola , Fiona Yu , Luke Molloy

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

To summarise the qualitative evidence exploring the attitudes and experiences of undergraduate nursing students involving spiritual care.

Background

Understanding patients’ spiritual needs allows nurses to provide support and comfort during illness and recovery. However, no consensus exists on how to teach and deliver spiritual care in the undergraduate nursing curriculum.

Design

A review of qualitative research

Methods

Systematic database searches included CINAHL Plus with full text, EMBASE, PubMed and Medline. The review was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The reviewers independently conducted study selection, quality appraisal and data extraction. The included studies were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. Thematic analysis guided by Thomas and Harden was used.

Results

Twelve papers were included in this review. Thematic analysis revealed three overarching themes: (1) a complex understanding of spirituality and spiritual care, (2) a lack of comprehensive education on spirituality and spiritual care and (3) a quest to normalise spirituality and spiritual care among nursing students.

Conclusions

This systematic review affirms the need to include the subject of spiritual care in the early stages of undergraduate nursing programs. More research is needed to examine how new nursing graduates incorporate spiritual care in their clinical practice and the barriers they face. Like other literature, there is a need for a clear definition of spirituality and spiritual care to allow student nurses to understand spirituality and spiritual care better and will enable them to integrate them into their future practice fully.

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背景了解患者的精神需求有助于护士在患者患病和康复期间为其提供支持和安慰。然而，对于如何在护理本科课程中教授和提供心灵关怀，目前尚无共识。综述按照系统综述和荟萃分析首选报告项目 (PRISMA) 指南进行报告。审稿人独立进行了研究选择、质量评估和数据提取。采用批判性评估技能计划工具对纳入的研究进行评估。在托马斯和哈登的指导下进行了专题分析。专题分析揭示了三个首要主题：（1）对灵性和灵性关怀的复杂理解；（2）缺乏有关灵性和灵性关怀的全面教育；（3）寻求在护理专业学生中将灵性和灵性关怀正常化。需要开展更多的研究，以探讨护理专业的新毕业生如何将灵性关怀纳入临床实践，以及他们所面临的障碍。与其他文献一样，有必要对灵性和灵性关怀进行明确的定义，以便让护士学生更好地理解灵性和灵性关怀，并将其充分融入到未来的实践中。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Nurse Education in Practice NURSING-

CiteScore

5.40

自引率

9.40%

发文量

180

审稿时长

51 days

期刊介绍： Nurse Education in Practice enables lecturers and practitioners to both share and disseminate evidence that demonstrates the actual practice of education as it is experienced in the realities of their respective work environments. It is supportive of new authors and will be at the forefront in publishing individual and collaborative papers that demonstrate the link between education and practice.