Spirituality and spiritual care in nursing: A literature review

@#<p style="text-align: justify;">Spirituality is a multifaceted concept with varied definitions. In the nursing literature, it is commonly described based on its significance in the lives of individuals. Exploring the perspectives of nurses, nursing students, and patients regarding spirituality and spiritual care is crucial to gain a sound understanding of how these concepts impact the nursing profession. This literature review explored the perspectives on spirituality and spiritual care of four population groups: nurse educators, nursing students, clinical nurses, and patients. A literature search was done using worldwide databases. The 84 articles included dealt with the perceptions of nurse educators, nursing students, clinical nurses, and patients regarding spirituality and spiritual care.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The four main categories of perspectives from the nurse educators, nursing students, nurse clinicians, and patients yielded ten sub-categories: (a) meaning of spirituality and spiritual care, (b) role of spirituality and spiritual care in nursing practice, (c) role of nursing education in developing spirituality and spiritual care competence of nursing students, (d) manner of integrating spirituality and spiritual care in nursing curriculum, (e) methods of teaching spirituality and spiritual care, (f) manner of spiritual care delivery, (g) barriers and challenges to the teaching and learning of spirituality and spiritual care, (h) barriers and challenges to spiritual care delivery, (i) ways of enhancing nurse educators' competence in curricular integration and teaching spirituality and spiritual care, and (j) ways of enhancing nurses' competence in spiritual care delivery.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Nurse educators, nursing students, clinical nurses, and patients presented similar and diverse perspectives, but they all recognized the significance of spirituality and spiritual care in the profession. The information derived from this study can contribute to the existing knowledge base and spur strategies at individual and institutional levels to enhance teaching and learning of the concepts, improve practice, and promote holistic care.</p>

Learning with communities: Structures and mechanisms for reproductive health programs among indigenous peoples of the Cordilleras

@#<p style="text-align: justify;">This paper attempts to capture how the principles of Participatory Action Research (PAR) were put into life in the integrated reproductive health (RH) programme in the Cordilleras, Northern Philippines. Document review and interviews of program staff were utilized to learn from the field and data were derived from participatory methods such as Group and Team Dynamic Methods, Interviewing and Dialogue Methods, Sampling Methods, and Visualization and Diagramming Methods. Results show that Community Needs Assessment (CNA) as a baseline for integrated planning of programme partners, laid a PAR framework for the entire development process. With the guidance of the integrated RH framework, the CNA ensured relevant and correct interpretation and analysis of data which then led to meaningful plans, actions and partnership, having gained the acceptance of communities. Community structures - People's Organizations with Health Committees that oversee income generating projects and RH education activities in the barangays (villages), were strengthened; partnerships with the Barangays Councils (BC) and the Barangay Health Stations (BHS) are continually enhanced to make policy formulation and service delivery more responsive to RH needs. Through this, the community was presented as a powerful unit of identity that builds on the strengths and resources of the community. The experience revealed that co-learning and capacity building can be promoted, and knowledge generation and intervention is integrated. The experience also emphasized the local relevance of public health problems (RH in this case) and the multiple determinants of health and disease including biomedical, social, economic, and physical environmental factors. To the researchers, it has been an inspiring and empowering experience to grow and learn with the people.</p>