Trascendencia espiritual, oportunidad de cuidadores informales de personas mayores: revisión integrativa desde la filosofía de Watson

Abstract

Introduction: Integrating spirituality into care is a challenge for nursing that has not yet been completely overcome. Population aging and the increase in multimorbidities have increased the dependence of the elderly and, therefore, the demand for informal caregivers. European countries have faced these transitions for years so they have innovative strategies for the care of both subjects; However, in Latin America this panorama is still in development. The philosophy of Jean Watson proposes avant-garde ideas to achieve the humanization of nursing care, among which the capacity of transcendence of the spirit is highlighted, depending on its strength. Objective: To identify the areas of opportunity that can propitiate the spiritual importance of informal caregivers towards the elderly in their care, taking into account the basic premises of Jean Watson's philosophy and considering only bibliography with Ibero-American population. Methods: Integrative review of the literature; Articles were selected that addressed the spirituality of informal caregivers of the elderly, even if it is not the central theme, developed in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking population between 2010 and 2019 in English, Spanish and Portuguese in the PubMed, BVS, Cochrane, Lilacs, Scielo, CUIDEN and EBSCO host databases. Results: Six research articles were selected from the PubMed and BVS databases. In all cases a strong spiritual attachment is observed by informal caregivers; one of the most recurrent religious practices of them is prayer as a form of communication and feeling close to higher power followed by frequent participation in religious services and events. Discussion: According to Jean Watson's philosophy, intense human relationships produce a link between the spirit of the participants, a link through which the reflection of one's own spirit is possible in that of the other person. Conclusion: There is an opportunity for the transcendence of the spirit given the spiritual work of informal caregivers.