Research Project: Spiritual Care Provided by Registered Nurses
PROBLEM:
According to the holistic paradigm, the human being
consists of body, mind, and spirit.
While the body and mind issues are well addressed
in health care, it is the spiritual care that often remains a vague and elusive
factor.
Holistic health is expected in the 21st
century.
It is not only expected by society generally, but also
documented in publications by agency accreditation standards and professional
codes.
Just adding “holism” to a philosophy statement or
establishing spiritual care policies will not solve this problem.
Spiritual care is defined as a relational issue.
It has to do with the way people talk to one
another.
LITERATURE
REVIEW: There is ample evidence in the literature that spiritual care provides
increased resilience and promotes healing.
In a recent study of spiritual care received by
terminally ill cancer patients, the 67% of the subjects reported religiousness
to be very important, but 59.7% reported none or limited care from doctors,
nurses, and chaplains. In
nursing education, spirituality is included in the curriculum, but a survey of
faculty reveals uncertainty about what is to be taught.
A
model course was not found. The literature shows a debate about whether it
should be taught.
A study found nursing textbook pages devoted to
spiritual issues ranged from 0% to 13% with few exceptions.
Studies about current nursing practices regarding
spiritual care in the
United States
have not been found in the literature.
NEED:
Of all groups of patients, the oncology group logically would be the first group
one would expect to receive spiritual care.
If this group receives so little, then what of all
of the other patients?
What are the barriers?
Educational programs and health care agencies
typically are without well designed programs providing guidelines and policies
about how nurses are to proceed.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is two-fold:
1) to survey the nurses from a wide variety of services concerning their rating
of the spiritual care they are currently providing, and 2) to determine the
degree to which a computer assisted instruction educational intervention
influences nurses’ ratings of spiritual care.
THEORETICAL
BASIS: The
Theory of Spiritual Care in Nursing Practice (Battey,
2009).
DESIGN:
1) A survey will be conducted to determine the
nurse subjects’ rating of the spiritual care they are currently providing with
random assignment of subjects to the control and experimental groups.
The survey tool to be used
Spiritual-Communication
Satisfaction-Importance (SCSI) Questionnaire
(Battey, 2009).
2) The Solomon four-group
experimental design will be used (when possible) to determine the degree to
which the educational intervention,
Spirituality in
nursing practices: A computer assisted instruction program & course manual
(Battey, 2010), influences the perspectives of the subjects.
3) The SCSI survey tool will be used again as a posttest for
the subjects.
SAMPLE:
The study will consist of a convenience (volunteers) sample of 30 Registered
Nurse staff from multiple clinical areas at each of several research sites a
total of 200+ subjects.
Criterion for subject selection includes:
1)
Employed full time for one year at the agency research site.
2)
Involved in direct patient care within the past five years.
3)
Speak English as a primary language and English as a second language.
4)
Adhere to any religious/spirituality belief system.
5)
Be available to participate in this research project.
FUNDING:
Primarily
seeking funding for the services of a statistical consultant.
Two research sites have completed the research
project, and three additional sites will initiate the study in August, 2011.
A pilot study has been completed at a California
site.
Funding and resources are being provided by the research
site agencies and by personal funding sources.
Funding has been sought from many foundations and
organizational groups and agencies, but this study does not fall within current
objectives.
PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR: Bonnie W. Battey, Ph.D.,
R.N., Consultant in Nursing Education. (bwbattey@comcast.net; Phone
925-706-0442; Fax 925-706-0621)
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