Health, Spirituality and Medical Ethics

Background and Objectives: Spirituality and spiritual care, as essential components of holistic nursing care, are widely recognized, while spiritual aspect is still overlooked. Spirituality has been associated with the caregiver’s sense of well-being and ability to cope. The aim of this study was to determine attitude of intensive care nurses toward spirituality and spiritual care and its relationship with mental health.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 55 nurses working in the Intensive Care Units of educational hospitals in Qom, 2014. Tools of study include measures of Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and ANOVA in the statistical software SPSS, ver. 16.
Results: There were 10.2% male and 89.8 % female nurses; age ranged from 21 to 46 years, with a mean age of 29 (SD=2.67). Mean and standard deviation attitude score of spirituality and spiritual care in nursing were 55.95 and 7.66, respectively. Among the demographic variables of age (r=0.491), and work experience (r=.496) were significant correlation with the perception of spirituality and spiritual care. Also, there were significant and direct correlations between spirituality and spiritual care and general health (r=0.348).
Conclusion: Our finding indicated that attitudes toward spirituality and spiritual care in the intensive care nurses were moderate. According to the direct relationship between attitudes toward spirituality and spiritual care and mental health, there should be a significant focus on strengthening spirituality in nursing care in intensive care, education, and acculturation in the area of religious and spiritual activities among nursing students.