Frequency of nurse-provided spiritual care: An international comparison.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To compare the frequency of nurse-provided spiritual care across diverse cultures. BACKGROUND: Given an ethical imperative to respect patient spirituality and religiosity, nurses are increasingly taught and expected to provide spiritual care. Although nurses report positive attitudes toward spiritual care, they typically self-report providing it infrequently. Evidence about the reported frequency of spiritual care is constrained by substantial variation in its measurement. DESIGN: This cross-sectional, descriptive study involved secondary analysis of data collected in multiple sites globally using one quantitative instrument. METHODS: Data were collected from practicing nurses using the Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale and analysed using descriptive statistics and a meta-analysis procedure with random-effect modelling. Datasets from 16 studies completed in Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Portugal, Taiwan, Turkey and the United States contributed to a pooled sample (n = 4062). STROBE guidelines for cross-sectional observational studies were observed. RESULTS: Spiritual care varied between countries and within countries. It was slightly more frequent within Islamic cultures compared with predominantly Christian cultures. Likewise, frequency of spiritual care differed between nurses in palliative care, predominantly hospital/inpatient settings, and skilled nursing homes. Overall, "Remaining present…" was the most frequent therapeutic, whereas documenting spiritual care and making arrangements for the patient's clergy or a chaplain to visit were among the most infrequent therapeutics. CONCLUSIONS: In widely varying degrees of frequency, nurses around the world provide care that is cognisant of the spiritual and religious responses to living with health challenges. Future research should be designed to adjust for the multiple factors that may contribute to nurses providing spiritual care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Findings offer a benchmark and begin to inform nurse leaders about what may be normative in practice. They also encourage nurses providing direct patient care that they are not alone and inform educators about what instruction future nurses require.

Stroke Survivors and Their Family Caregivers' Experiences of Health Information Seeking: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Stroke is a significant and unpredictable event that affects physical and mental functions. A useful approach to returning to a normal life is to seek out health information. This study aimed to explore the experiences from health information seeking in the stroke survivors and their family caregivers. Methods: This study was carried out using qualitative content analysis. Participants included five stroke survivors and fifteen family caregivers who were selected purposively from the Rofideh Rehabilitation Center and private physiotherapy centers in Tehran. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was performed using Graneheim and Lundman's method manually in Word software. Sampling was carried out in 2021. Results: Two main categories were extracted 1): adapting and learning resulting from awareness including optimization of living environment and disease management, and 2) fear and inquietude on the information way including confused and insolvent in receiving information, and doubts about the accuracy of information. Conclusion: The health information seeking created adaptability and relative stability in some stroke survivors and their family caregivers. However, in others, there was still a sense of anxiety and uncertainty. Thus, understanding health information seeking experiences helps health policymakers and administrators to provide information and training based on evidence and individual needs of the client and family.

Validity and reliability of the Persian version of the nurse spiritual care therapeutics scale (NSCTS).

BACKGROUND: Dealing with the spiritual needs of patients has been recognized as one of the principles of holistic care in nursing. Therefore, it is necessary for nurses to deal with the spiritual issues of patients. Also, a valid and reliable scale is needed to measure nurse-provided spiritual care. So the purpose of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the "Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale" in Iranian nurses. METHOD: In a methodological study, English version of the Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale was translated into Persian by forward-backward translation procedure. Face validity was assessed by cognitive interview, and content validity was assessed by a panel of experts. In addition, construct validity was assessed by exploratory factor analysis. The participants were 188 nurses working in different adult wards. Reliability was measured using the Cronbach's alpha and stability reliability was assessed using the internal correlation coefficient (ICC). RESULTS: In assessing the construct validity, two factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were identified, which explained 58.47% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha value was 0.932, and ICC was 0.892. CONCLUSION: As a result, the Persian version of the Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale shows a good validity and reliability. Therefore, this scale can be used to evaluate spiritual care at the bedside in Iran.