Spiritual care perceptions, spiritual health and their relationships with spiritual care competence among clinical nurses in China: A cross-sectional quantitative study

Objective:To investigate the status quo of spiritual care competence and assocaited influencing factors among clinical nurses in China,and examine the relationships among spiritual care perceptions,spiritual health and spiritual care competence,and the mediating role of spiritual health between spiritual care competence and spiritual care perceptions,in order to provide reference for the construction of spiritual care education intervention program to improve the spiritual care competence of clinical nurses in China.Methods:A total of 1454 clinical nurses from 17 hospitals in Tianjin were selected by convenience sampling method,and were investigated with sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire,the Chinese version of Spiritual Care Competence Scale(C-SCCS),the Chinese Version of the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale(C-SCGS)and the Spiritual Health Scale Short Form(SHS-SF).Results:The scores of spiritual care competence of nurses was(57.52±16.02).The results of multiple linear regression showed that nurses'spiritual care competence was influenced by 9 sociodemographic characteristics such as educational background and nursing age,as well as spiritual care perceptions and spiritual health factors,which accounted for 67.2%of the total variation.And spiritual care competence was positively correlated with spiritual care perceptions(r=0.639,P<0.01)and spiritual health(r=0.596,P<0.01).Besides,spiritual health played a mediating role between between other two variables,accounting for 27.5%of the indirect effect.Conclusions:The scores of spiritual care competence of clinical nurses was in the lower middle level,which needs to be further improved.It is recommended that nurse managers and educators should pay attention to the spiritual care education of nurses,and improve spiritual care perceptions and spiritual health level of nurses in multiple ways,at multiple levels,so as to improve their spiritual care competence and to maximize the satisfy spiritual care needs of patients.

Spiritual health, empathy ability and their relationships with spiritual care perceptions among nursing students in China: A cross-sectional correlational study

Objective:To investigate the status quo of spiritual care perceptions and associated factors among nursing students in China,and explore the relationships among spiritual care perceptions,spiritual health and empathy ability,in order to provide reference for the construction of spiritual care education intervention program to improve the spiritual care perceptions and competence of nursing students in China.Methods:A cross-sectional and correlational design was undertaken and a convenience sample of 3615 nursing students selected from 11 universities and colleges in Hebei Shijiazhuang and Tianjin,China from January to July 2021.Participants provided data on sociodemographic by completing the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire,the Chinese Version of the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale(C-SCGS),Spiritual Health Scale Short Form(SHS-SF)and Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Nursing Student(JSPE-NS).Results:The scores of spiritual care perceptions and spiritual health were 172.44±26.23 and 97.54±12.37,respectively,both in the middle level.The score of empathy ability was 102.92±19.65,lower than the average.Spiritual care perceptions of nursing students were positively correlated with spiritual health(r=0.635,P<0.01)and empathy ability(r=0.547,P<0.01).Conclusions:The level of spiritual care perceptions of nursing students in China needs to be improved.It is suggested that nurse managers and educators should pay attention to the spiritual care education of nursing students,by perfecting the spiritual care education system to improve their spiritual health level and empathy ability in multiple ways and levels,like clarifying and standardizing educational objectives,breaking through the traditional single evaluation system,and formulating scientific comprehensive evaluation standards and systems.,so as to improve their spiritual care perceptions and competence level.