Development of the Spirituality in Palliative Care Scale for nursing students in the context of Thai culture.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students form part of the healthcare team who care for patients who are living with a terminal illness and facing physical and spiritual suffering. However, there is a lack of suitable indicators to measure a nurse's spirituality when they are providing palliative care. AIM: To develop a way of measuring the spirituality of nurses who provide palliative care. METHOD: The participants consisted of 312 third-and fourth-year nursing students of two nursing colleges from southern and central Thailand. FINDING: The 12-item Spirituality in Palliative Care Scale had the reliability of .804. The measurement model was consistent with the empirical data and had unidimensional quality (X2=50.94, df=45, p-value=0.25, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.044, Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (SRMR)=0.044, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI)=0.95, Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)=0.97, goodness of fit (GFI)=0.97). The items' factor loadings were in between .48 and .84. CONCLUSION: The spirituality in palliative care scale can measure nursing students' spirituality in palliative care and nursing educators can use the measurement to support nursing students to develop greater awareness of spirituality in palliative care.

An integrative counselling program to promote active ageing for older people in Thai nursing homes: an intervention mixed methods design.

BACKGROUND: Active ageing has been a rapidly developing field of study in light of the growing population of older people. Acknowledgement of the lack of a counselling program to promote active ageing for the older people in nursing homes led to the development of this study which aims to investigate active ageing of the Thai elderly in a nursing home in addition to promoting active ageing for them through integrative counselling. METHODS: The study was conducted in a nursing home in Samut Prakan province, Thailand. The integrative counselling program referred to appropriate literature along with implementation of the Satir Model and Motivational Interviewing techniques. An intervention mixed methods design was applied in the study, which consisted of two phases. Phase 1 involved an investigation of the concept of active ageing, based on the context of older people in nursing homes by way of in-depth interviews, involving 5 participants. Phase 2 comprised of an investigation of the effects of an integrative counselling program to promote active ageing for older people in the same nursing home. There was a total of 16 participants in phase 2 which were divided equally into experimental and control groups respectively. RESULTS: Phase 1 of the study showcased qualitative results of the progress of active ageing development in older people that resulted in 4 sub-themes (Health development, spiritual development, active engagement and psychosocial support). Two parameters were used to analyze the results in phase 2. The quantitative results showed that the active ageing score of participants in the experimental arm increased significantly after enrollment (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the experimental group had a higher overall active ageing score in comparison to the control group. Qualitative results of phase 2 elicited factors promoting active ageing in the elderly which included activities, group facilitator and group atmosphere. Both quantitative and qualitative results of phase 2 proved to be significant, showing that the program managed to develop active ageing in participants. CONCLUSION: Psychologists and multidisciplinary teams looking after older people in nursing homes are able to use this integrative counselling program for development of active ageing in the elderly population.

Spiritual dimension in palliative care from the perspective of Thai palliative caregivers.

BACKGROUND: In Thailand, most terminally ill patients die in hospital and are looked after by health professionals. Terminally ill patients tend to receive physical care only, while in the main, spiritual care is neglected. This study aimed to explore spirituality in palliative care health professionals and spiritual leaders in the Thai Buddhist context. METHOD: In this qualitative case study, seven experienced palliative caregivers took part in in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis and a trustworthiness process were used to analyse the data. FINDINGS: Three themes emerged: (1) the ability for self-awareness and faith; (2) acceptance and compassion for others; and (3) spiritual behaviour while nursing. CONCLUSION: The results revealed the meaning of spirituality and the necessary characteristics for spirituality in palliative care for the participants, which could serve as a basis for further development.