[The Spiritual Health Status and Spiritual Care Behaviors of Nurses in Intensive Care Units and Related Factors].

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Patients suffer sudden and life-threatening conditions in intensive care units (ICU), which frequently result in traumatic changes in physical, mental, and spiritual health. Little research has been conducted on the spiritual health and spiritual care behaviors of nurses in ICU. PURPOSE: To explore the relationship among demographic characteristics, spiritual health, and spiritual care behaviors in ICU nurses. METHODS: A descriptive correlational research was used and 219 nurses from three teaching hospitals were enrolled as study participants. A structured questionnaire consisting of a demographic datasheet, a spiritual health scale, and a spiritual care behavior scale was used for data collection. SPSS for Windows version 22.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The participants received few hours of spiritual-care education. The highest scored item for spiritual health was "connecting with people". The highest scored item for spiritual care behavior was "helping the patient out of adversity". Participants who were older in age and who had more years of clinical experience exhibited spiritual care behaviors such as "helping the patient out of adversity" and "retaining hope" more frequently with their ICU patients. CONCLUSIONS / IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE The older and more clinically experienced nurses in this study performed spiritual care behaviors at a higher frequency than their younger, less experienced counterparts. Therefore, it is recommended that hospitals retain more-experienced nursing staff to elevate the level of holistic health care. Concurrently, training in spiritual care skills should be provided to younger and less experienced nurses in order to facilitate more spiritual care behaviors. The results of this study provide a reference for providing spiritual care behaviors to patients.