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ETHICS IN SPIRITUAL NURSING

Introduction

This is a guide to enable nursing staff to address questions about the spiritual part of care.
Media headlines have brought attention to the potential conflict that can exist between personal
spiritual values/beliefs of nursing staff and their practice

The Nursing and Midwifery Council expects newly qualified graduate nurses to be able to: “In
partnership with the person, their careers and their families, makes a holistic, person centered and
systemic assessment of physical, emotional, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual needs,
including risk, and together, develops a comprehensive personalized plan of nursing care”

Spiritual care definition

That care which recognizes and responds to the needs of the human spirit when faced with
trauma, ill health or sadness and can include the need for meaning, for self-wort, to express oneself,
for faith support, perhaps for rites or prayer or sacrament, or simply for a sensitive listener.
Spiritual care begins with encouraging human contact in compassionate relationship, and moves
in whatever direction need requires.

Nursing faculty and students recognize that people are holistic beings = physical, mental,
spiritual, emotional.

Considering a light bulb analogous to human, think of the glass, aluminum, and other
tangible materials that compromise it as representing the physical dimension; think of the light
bulb and warmth the bulb elicits as the psychological: and the electrical current that energizes and
ultimately provides the meaning and function for the bulb as the spiritual dimension.

Nursing Yesterday Today Tomorrow

 Past Florence Nightingale, a religious group who cared for the body & soul (Egyptian
priests and priestesses, monks’ nuns, etc.)
 Present Nurses/MD’s/Spiritual Experts are researching and publishing the impact of
spiritual care on medical conditions
 Future an increase in spiritual based treatments and interventions interwoven with medical
care for illnesses and diseases.
Spiritual care is not:

 Just about religious beliefs and practices


 About imposing your own beliefs and values on another
 Using your position to convert
 A specialist activity
 The sole responsibility of the chaplain

Spirituality is about:

 Hope and strength


 Trust
 Meaning and purpose
 Forgiveness
 Beliefs and faith in self, others, and for some this includes a belief in a deity/higher power
 Peoples’ values
 Love and relationship
 Morality
 Creativity and self-expression

Practicing spiritual care

Spiritual care is a fundamental part of nursing currently much neglected through ignorance
and misunderstanding

 The practice of spiritual care is about meeting people at the point of deepest need.
 It is about not just ‘doing to’ but ‘being with’ them.
 It is about our attitudes, behaviors and our personal qualities i.e. how we are with people.
 It is about treating spiritual needs with the same level of attention as physical needs.

What is needed for me?

 Adopting a caring attitude and disposition


 Recognizing and responding approximately to people’s needs
 Using observation to identify clues that may be indicative of underlying spiritual need
e.g. peoples’ disposition (sad/withdrawn), personal artefacts (photographs,
religious/meditational books and symbols.)
 Giving time to listen and attend to individual need.
 Being aware of when it is appropriate to refer to another source of support e.g.
chaplain, counselor, another staff member, family or friend.

Spiritual Health for Ourselves and Our Patients

Includes:

 Self-meaning and purpose, cope with life, personal dignity, love and be loves, significance,
etc.
 Others it means relationship with family, friends, forgiveness, etc.
 God/Life Force/Absolute faith in the unseen, receive support and love, worship and serve,
etc.
 Community contribute, fellowship, respect, participant of a vital group, etc.

Holistic Caring Includes Spiritual Care

 Physical bathing, massage, touch, procedures, etc.


 Psychological therapeutic communication, understanding, listening, etc.
 Spiritual presenting, empathy, praying or meditating with the patient, etc. Attending to
Spiritual needs of patients is part of our daily nursing care.

Spiritual Care in Nursing

 Roy’s Adaptation Model


- The moral ethical spiritual self is part of self-concept mode and adaptation problem in
this mode can interfere with ability to heal or promote healing behaviors.
 Nursing Mandates
- All clients should be assessed for spiritual beliefs/practices and offered spiritual
support.
- International Council of Nurses promotes environment in which human rights, values,
customs, and spiritual beliefs of the individual, family and community are respected.

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