ABSTRACT
Spiritual care has long been recognized as an essential component in providing holistic care to patients. However, many nurses have acknowledged that their education lacked practical guidelines on how to provide culturally competent spiritual care. Although all nurses are required to provide spiritual care, rehabilitation nurses are particularly challenged to be competent in this area, due to the lengthy recovery time and special needs often presented by rehabilitation patients. This article provides practical guidelines for rehabilitation nurses, to assist patients in meeting their spiritual needs.
Subject(s)
Cultural Diversity , Nurse's Role/psychology , Nursing Assessment/organization & administration , Rehabilitation Nursing/organization & administration , Spirituality , Attitude to Health/ethnology , Communication , Empathy , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Health Services Needs and Demand , Holistic Health , Humans , Nursing Process , Patient Care Planning , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Social Support , Transcultural Nursing/organization & administrationABSTRACT
After the civil war and the Hurricane-Mitch disaster, cattlemen in Nicaragua were forced to transport their cattle from lowland areas to higher, dryer areas of the country. These areas are natural ecological niches for the cattle grub Dermatobia hominis (L. Jr.) (Diptera: Cuterebridae). To determine the importance of this infestation, the Agricultural and Livestock-Forestry Ministry selected a central area of Nicaragua to run a pioneer survey program to acquire information about hosts involved, number of cases, treatments applied and general knowledge of 42 farmers about the life cycle of the parasite. The subjects were either farm owners or farm managers. Ninety-five percentage of the farms indicated cases of D. hominis infestation in their animals, with cattle being the most affected host (100% of the affected farms). There was poor understanding of the D. hominis life cycle, vectors and control methods. A misuse of insecticides for the treatment of larval infestation by D. hominis was indicated.
