“Enablement”—Spirituality Engagement in Pre-Registration Nurse Education and Practice: A Grounded Theory Investigation

Abstract

Historically, spirituality in nursing was considered a fundamental dimension, contributing to patients’ wellbeing. Accordingly, nurses are expected to attend to the spiritual needs of patients as a part of holistic nursing care, and pre-registration nurse education (that is undergraduate nurse education) has a responsibility to equip them to fulfil this aspect of their role. However, the content of spirituality in nurse education programmes lack structure and consistency, hence further investigation into the value of such education and its transferability in clinical practice is needed. Data collection was by individual interviews with 13 pre-registration participants undertaking adult nursing between March 2012 and May 2014. Each interview was digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Through theoretical sampling, data collection and analysis occurred in a cyclical manner until theoretical saturation/sufficiency was reached. The participants’ main concerns were: explaining spirituality, remembering spirituality education and content, and uncertainties about facilitating patients’ spiritual needs; these combine to form ‘having sufficient spirituality education to facilitate patients’ spiritual needs’. The substantive theory of ‘Enablement’ (make possible) was constructed to explain how the participants resolved their main concern. This investigation reveals how the participants acquire and translate spirituality education to practice, so realising holistic care.