Spirituality Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Spirituality, including details on effects in health care, religion, psychology.

Integrating spirituality into undergraduate nursing curricula.

Wallace M, Campbell S, Grossman SC, Shea JM, Lange JW, Quell TT

Fairfield University. meredith.wallace@yale.edu

Nursing programs have done a commendable job keeping pace with the rapid advances in disease management. Yet, spirituality has received far less attention in nursing curricula (Keefe, 2005) and nursing students often do not have a strong foundation in this area. The purpose of this project was to integrate spirituality into the undergraduate nursing curricula and measure student outcomes related to spiritual knowledge and attitudes. Nursing faculty participated in a spirituality education program and followed this with sessions focused on integration of spiritual content into individual nursing courses. Student pre and post-tests were administered using a standard instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Significant differences in spirituality knowledge and attitudes among senior-level nursing students (t = -3.059, p = .004) were revealed. As the healthcare system becomes increasingly complex, providing students with tools to identify and strengthen inner resources is essential to patient care.

Published 3 April 2008 in Int J Nurs Educ Scholarsh, 5: Article10.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

Articles on Spirituality published 4 March 2008:

Experimenting with spirituality: analyzing The God Gene in a nonmajors laboratory course.   CBE Life Sci Educ, 7(1): 132-45.

References linking genes to complex human traits, such as personality type or disease susceptibility, abound in the news media and popular culture. In his book The God Gene: How Faith is Hardwired into Our Genes, Dean Hamer argues that a variation in the VMAT2 gene plays a role in one's openness to spiritual experiences. In a nonmajors class, we read and discussed The God Gene and conducted on a small scale an extension of the study it describes. Students used polymerase chain reaction to ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 28 January 2008:

Spirituality, sense of coherence, and coping responses in women receiving treatment for alcohol and drug addiction.   Eval Program Plann, 31(1): 113-23.

PURPOSE: To examine the role of spirituality, sense of coherence, and coping responses in relation to stress and trauma symptoms among women in substance abuse treatment. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Data for the present analyses were obtained from baseline interviews of 393 women in an urban area of Massachusetts. Interviews were conducted from April 2003 to September 2006. Participants came from four substance abuse treatment programs (three residential and one outpatient) participating in the ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 15 January 2008:

Spiritual well-being, intrinsic religiosity, and suicidal behavior in predominantly Catholic Croatian war veterans with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder: a case control study.   J Nerv Ment Dis, 196(1): 79-83.

We investigated relationships between spiritual well-being (SWB), intrinsic religiosity (IR), and suicidal behavior in 45 Croatian war veterans with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder and 32 healthy volunteers. Compared with the volunteers, the veterans had significantly lower SWB scores (p = 0.000) and existential well-being (EWB) scores (p = 0.000). Scores on the religious well-being (RWB) subscale (p = 0.108) and the IR scale did not differ significantly between the groups (p = 0.803). ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 24 December 2007:

Addressing spiritual leadership: an organizational model.   J Nurs Adm, 38(1): 33-9.

The Joint Commission requires health systems to address spiritual care. Research indicates that spirituality is associated with better physical, psychological, and social health and that culturally diverse populations and individuals at end-of-life often request spiritual care. The authors report the results of a consensus conference of 21 executives representing 10 large faith-based health systems who discussed the input, process, and outcomes of a corporate model for spiritual leadership. ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 19 December 2007:

Is failure to meet spiritual needs associated with cancer patients' perceptions of quality of care and their satisfaction with care?   J Clin Oncol, 25(36): 5753-7.

PURPOSE: Few studies regarding patients' views about spirituality and health care have included patients with cancer who reside in the urban, northeastern United States. Even fewer have investigated the relationship between patients' spiritual needs and perceptions of quality and satisfaction with care. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Outpatients (N = 369) completed a questionnaire at the Saint Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York, NY. The instrument included the Quality of End-of-Life Care ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 15 October 2007:

Teaching spirituality to student midwives: a creative approach.   Nurse Educ Pract, 7(6): 416-24.

The nature of midwifery both as an art and a science requires methods of teaching students that will enhance this understanding. A philosophy of holistic care of women should underpin education of student midwives and these concepts should be put across to the students in meaningful ways. In the formal midwifery curriculum this has been a neglected aspect (Hall, 2001) [Hall, J., 2001. Midwifery Mind and spirit: emerging issues of care. Books for Midwives, Oxford]. We have developed a teaching ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 10 August 2007:

Spirituality as a universal concept: student experience of learning about spirituality through the medium of art.   Nurse Educ Pract, 7(5): 275-84.

Precise definitions of spirituality can be elusive (McSherry, 2000). This factor together with the increasing class sizes for undergraduate nursing students render the teaching and learning of spirituality in nursing a challenge for both lecturers and students alike (McSherry, 2000). This paper reports on the design, delivery and evaluation of an innovative spirituality program for second year nursing students attending a Bachelor of Science degree at a university in the Republic of Ireland. ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

Articles on Spirituality published 3 July 2007:

Health as balance for the Sto:lo Coast Salish.   J Transcult Nurs, 18(3): 208-14.

The purpose of this study was to examine the concept of health for the Sto:lo Coast Salish of the Pacific Northwest and describe their ways of being healthy within their specific context, considering the climate, the resources of their natural environment, and their spiritual heritage. This study, using a grounded theory approach, focused on the meaning of health for the Sto:lo. A sample of 18 participants and two cultural experts, using the constant comparison method and dimensional analysis, ... [Abstract] [Full-text]

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