Competencies of nursing students in the provision of spiritual care and the factors affecting spiritual caregiving

Purpose Nursing care is a holistic practice that contains biological, psychological, sociological, and spiritual elements. Spiritual care is also one of the core aspects of a holistic care approach, The provision of optimal spiritual care requires a good understanding of the issue by nurses. The present study determines the competencies of nursing students in spiritual care and the status of spiritual caregiving. Design and Methods The study has a descriptive, cross-sectional, and qualitative research method of answers to follow-up questions. The study was conducted with 468 nursing students who are 1-4 years in a BSN program in Turkey. Personal information form, semi-structured interview form, Spiritual Caregiving Scale, and Spiritual Care Competence Scale were used for the collection of data. Findings The average scores recorded by the participants in the Spiritual Caregiving and Spiritual Care Competence Scales were 145.60 +/- 20.63 (the perception of spirituality and spiritual care is moderate-high) and 102.92 +/- 15.67 (the competence of the nurse in spiritual care is moderate-high), respectively. It was found that nearly half of the respondent students had never heard of the concept of spiritual care, nor did they have any knowledge of such care, and almost none had undergone training in this subject. Practice Implications Important to add spiritual care to the nursing curriculum as a separate course or subject, and to raise awareness of students through applied teaching methods.