NURSING STUDENTS AND NURSES ATTITUDE TOWARD SPIRITUALITY AND SPIRITUAL CARE

Spirituality is an important dimension of holistic nursing and spiritual care is essential in order to ensure the achievement of educational objectives in the nursing profession, providing proper care and obtaining minimum standards of professional competence and maintaining and promoting it. The aim of this study was to investigate nurses and nursing students’ viewpoints about spirituality and spiritual care of patients. This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population included all nursing students and nurses working in hospitals affiliated with Larestan University of Medical Sciences. Finally, 221 subjects were selected by simple random sampling. After collecting data, research data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 and descriptive statistics. Among 221 participants in the study, 86 (38.9%) were men and 135 (61.1%) were women, 93 (42.1%) were nurses and 128 (57.9%) were nursing students, 124 Individuals (56.1%) were single and 97 (43.9%) were married. The assessment of the total score obtained by nurses and nursing students shows that the majority of nurses (49.5%) had a score range between 63-92(favorable condition) and nursing students (100%) had a score range between 32-62 (average condition). Also, the findings of this study indicated that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of attitude toward spirituality and spiritual care, gender and job status (P <0.05). A good attitude toward spiritual care among nurses and nursing students can provide a good basis for providing spiritual care to patients.