Assessing Nurses' Knowledge of Spiritual Care Practices Before and After an Educational Workshop.

BACKGROUND: Although current research findings reflect that spiritual care is integral to the discipline of nursing, implementation of spiritual care still remains a neglected area of practice. METHOD: The purpose of this pretest-posttest study was to determine whether a spiritual care educational workshop would increase nurses' knowledge, self-awareness, and abilities regarding spiritual care practices. The Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS) was used to measure the nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about spirituality and spiritual care practices. RESULTS: Forty-nine nurses working at a satellite hospital within the midwestern United States attended the educational workshop. A statistically significant increase in nurses' knowledge, self-awareness, and abilities regarding spiritual care practices was observed after the educational workshop. The majority of nurses reported that their nursing education inadequately prepared them to provide spiritual care to their patients, and they were unable to meet the spiritual needs of their patients. CONCLUSION: Findings support the need for continued education regarding spiritual care practices among working nurses. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2017;48(3):115-122.

[Health policies and sickle cell disease]. / Politiques de santé et drépanocytose.

Issues of public health raised by sickle cell disease and available solutions vary greatly between countries. Two main variables lead the choices: the affordable health resources, and the distribution of the abnormal genes in the population. Three examples have been chosen to illustrate these challenges. 1. In continental France, the level of health resources is good but the distribution of sickle traits is very heterogeneous among the population. Health policies against sickle cell disease aim at organizing screening and care to reach populations at risk, and concentrate the efforts upon them. This task is made difficult by two usual characteristics of these minorities: their rather poor social condition, and their cultural isolation. 2. In Guadeloupe (French West Indies) available health resources are similar to those of France but the sickle trait is common and has a homogeneous distribution in the population (14% carriers). Sickle cell disease is a health priority. Such conditions have recently favoured the organization of an efficient program for prevention and care of the disease. 3. In Benin (West Africa) a very high prevalence of sickle trait (more than 30% individuals are carriers, and about 4% have the disease) comes along with quite precarious resources that have to be shared with several other health priorities. An efficient and sustained policy against sickle cell disease has not yet been developed, which impedes a rational use of the few available resources, and creates much distress for diseased individuals.