ABSTRACT
Background: Daily spiritual experiences and spiritual care competence have positive health effects on patients and form an integral part of the nursing profession. This study was conducted to determine the relationship between daily spiritual experiences and the dimensions of spiritual care competence in nursing students. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 401 nursing students in their last year of the program. The participants were selected from nursing schools in Tehran Province, Iran, in the academic year 2019-2020. The required data were extracted using a demographic information questionnaire, the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES), and the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS). The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software at the significance level of 0.05. Results: The mean (SD) of daily spiritual experiences and total spiritual care competence was 67.15 (16.33) and 101.77 (16.26), respectively. The personal support and patient counseling dimensions had the highest mean (SD) [22.10) 4.80)]. Among all these dimensions of spiritual care competence, only professionalization and improvement of the quality of spiritual care were predictors of the students' daily spiritual experiences (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The professionalization dimension of spiritual care competence was identified as a predictor of daily spiritual experience in nursing students. Therefore, the researchers recommend the highlighting of this dimension in nursing programs to promote the students' spiritual care competence.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Young people are the main group at risk of HIV/AIDS due to factors such as curiosity, peer pressure, lack of knowledge and skills, unsafe sexual behaviors, and drug abuse. The present study was conducted to compare the knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding HIV/AIDS among medical and non-medical students in Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted on a population consisting of the students of Shahid Beheshti University (SBU) and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU). A total of 303 students were randomly selected from the two universities. Data were collected using a researcher-made HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitude, and practice questionnaire. Data were then analyzed using the independent t-test, Mann-Whitney's U-test, the ANOVA, and the Kruskal-Wallis test in SPSS-18. P<0.05 was set as the level of significance for all the tests. FINDINGS: The frequencies of marital status, education, smoking, alcohol and psychotropic substance use, employment status, and source of information differed significantly between the medical and non-medical students. There was a significant difference between the two groups regarding knowledge (P<0.001) and practice (P=0.019) regarding HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of their attitude toward HIV/AIDS (P=0.503). The results of the ANOVA revealed a significant correlation between marital status and practice (P=0.022), education and attitude (P=0.004), and smoking and knowledge (P=0.008) among the medical students. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference between the demographic variables and knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding HIV/AIDS among the non-medical students (P>0.005). CONCLUSION: The present findings showed that designing and developing appropriate educational programs, offered through group media, scientific seminars, courses, lectures, and group discussions, can be effective in enhancing the students' knowledge and changing their attitudes and should be incorporated into healthcare programs.
