Attributes of Spiritual Care in Nursing Practice

Abstract

Nurses are increasingly being called on to engage in spiritual care with their patients. A diverse body of theoretical and empirical literature addresses spirituality as it relates to nursing practice, yet there is little consensus about what spiritual nursing care entails. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize spiritual care in relation to nursing practice. A brief historical review indicates that our current understandings of spiritual nursing care have been shaped by three eras characterized by particular approaches: the religious approach, the scientific approach, and the existential approach. We draw elements from each of these approaches to propose attributes of spiritual care in the context of nursing practice. We propose that spiritual nursing care is an intuitive, interpersonal, altruistic, and integrative expression that is contingent on the nurse’s awareness of the transcendent dimension of life but that reflects the patient’s reality.