Empirical validation of a teaching course on spiritual care in Taiwan.

UNLABELLED: AIM(S) OF STUDY: The aims of this study were threefold: (a) to develop the first spiritual care program for master of science in nursing degree students (MSNDS) in Taiwan, since most of these students are or will be nursing leaders in clinical practice, education, administration, or research; (b) to facilitate the MSNDS in applying the contents of this program to care of their clients; and (c) to understand the MSNDS' appraisals of the usefulness of the program in helping them provide spiritual care in clinical settings. BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) (1998) proclaimed that health needs should include spiritual well-being in addition to physical, mental, and social domains. Nevertheless, many dominant medical educational systems have not yet encompassed spiritual care as part of their comprehensive or core curricula. DESIGN/METHODS: The methodological triangulation research design used in this project included various strategies of developing a novice course entitled 'Spirituality in Nursing Practice' which was given to the subjects over 18 weeks from September 1998 to February 1999. The course included classroom lectures, field trips, clinical implications, and presentation-appraisal. A convenience sample of 22 female MSNDS who were or had the potential to be nursing leaders from two schools of nursing in northern Taiwan was obtained. RESULTS: Four types of help were identified: (a) help in clarifying the theoretical concepts of spiritual care (100%); (b) help in providing a culturally bonded spiritual care plan (100%); (c) help in self-disclosure of the nurse's personal value systems and spiritual needs (91%); and (d) help in clarifying the symbolic meaning and the impact of religious rituals (86%). The explicit spiritual care plans and an empirical example of spiritual care were provided. CONCLUSIONS: This study presented the first spiritual care program for MSNDS in Taiwan. All subjects considered the course helpful in providing spiritual care for their clients in various clinical settings. The concept of spirituality is arousing great interest in the world, and this is evident in the spiritual care courses appearing in nursing curricula for nursing leaders in Taiwan.

[The development of a competency-based clinical performance examination model in maternity nursing for BSN graduates].

The purpose of the study was to establish a competency-based clinical performance examination model in maternity nursing for baccalaureate students. Action research was the main research methodology used in the study. A committee, consisting of nursing faculty, students and experienced obstetric nurses, was established to develop the model. Based on intensive literature reviews and standards of nursing practice in Taiwan, the first draft of the model, including the content and process, was created by the committee. The draft then was revised twice after expert review and pilot testing. The revised version of the model was formally implemented into the curriculum to examine the competencies of forty-one BSN students at the end of the perinatal nursing course. Responses from students, clinical examiners, clinical staff and clients were all gathered and integrated to refine the model. The model has content, expert and discriminative validity. The reliability of the model was proven by the high consistency in administration and scoring of the model among clinical examiners.

Taiwanese nurses' appraisal of a lecture on spiritual care for patients in critical care units.

The purpose of this study is to develop a lecture on spiritual care for adult critical care trainees, and to evaluate the trainees' appraisal of the effectiveness of this lecture in preparing them to provide spiritual care for their clients in a critical care setting. A between-method triangulation research design encompassing a questionnaire and descriptive qualitative content analysis was used. A convenience sample consisting of 64 registered nurses who attended an adult critical care nurse training programme in a leading medical centre in northern Taiwan were invited to participate in this study. A total of 64 female participants completed the questionnaire. Ninety-two per cent (59) of the subjects considered the lecture on spiritual care to be helpful in assisting them to provide holistic care for critically ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Three types of help were identified by the subjects: (1) help in clarifying the abstract concepts related to spiritual care (86%); (2) help in self-disclosing the nurses' personal beliefs and values regarding life goals, nursing, and spiritual needs (67%); (3) help in learning how to provide spiritual care to patients in a critical care setting (34%). Twenty per cent of the subjects thought that inclusion of the following content in the lecture would have been helpful to provide a more comprehensive picture of spiritual care: religious practices and rituals (11%); the culturally bonded nursing care plan (9%); the development of human spirituality (3%); patients' families' spiritual needs in the ICU (3%); and resources for nurses in providing spiritual care (2%). Thirteen per cent of the subjects suggested that the instructor might employ the following strategies to improve the quality of teaching: providing more empirical examples (5%); discussion with the students in classes of smaller size following the lecture or extending the instruction time (5%); and providing a syllabus with detailed information (3%).

The growth of meta-analytic literature from 1980 to 1993.

A search of the literature was undertaken to estimate the number of meta-analytic studies that have been published in the social and health sciences to date. Altogether, 1,874 published quantitative reviews were located by the end of 1994: 892 in the health sciences, 982 in the social sciences. Trends from 1980 to 1993 indicate that, while the social sciences embraced the technique earlier, health researchers are now publishing almost twice as many meta-analyses as their social science colleagues.