Embedding spiritual care into everyday nursing practice
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Embedding spiritual care into everyday nursing practice

Janice Clarke Independent consultant, Three Counties School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Worcester, Worcester, England
Kath Baume Senior lecturer and international lead for pre-registration nursing, Three Counties School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Worcester, Worcester, England

Why you should read this article
  • To raise awareness of the importance of spirituality and spiritual care for patients

  • To enhance your knowledge of the skills and techniques involved in providing spiritual care

  • To enable you to feel confident in implementing spiritual care in your everyday nursing practice

This article explains how patients’ spiritual needs can be embedded into everyday nursing practice, rather than being seen as an additional task for nurses to undertake. It outlines an integrated person model of care, which involves the nurse using the unique contact involved in providing physical care to meet the patient’s spiritual needs. In addition, nurses can use the principles of therapeutic relationships such as empathy and providing a non-judgemental presence to support spiritual care, as well as respecting patients’ dignity and individuality. This article also describes techniques for discussing spirituality with patients, and explains how touch can be a useful therapeutic intervention that can enhance patients’ spiritual well-being.

Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11354

Citation

Clarke J, Baume K (2019) Embedding spiritual care into everyday nursing practice. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2019.e11354

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

k.baume@worc.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Published online: 04 November 2019

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