Nurses' Use of Spiritual Practices in Caring for Self During the Pandemic.

Stressful life events often disrupt individuals' assumptive world, challenging their self-identity and altering their lives. Suffering from stressful life events may have a profound negative impact on a person's life. Nurses felt great demands on their spiritual selves even as they responded to the grave situations and caring demands needed to care for the spirits of their patients during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, with intentionality, suffering and stress can be ameliorated by engaging in spiritual self-care and self-renewing activities. Spirituality is recognized as an essential factor in a person's health and well-being and is integral to the process of growing through life events, such as illness, grief, and bereavement. Nurses may choose to use spiritual practices, either religious or nonreligious, to buffer the effects of stressful life events. The concept of caring for self has long being promoted, by scholars, as an essential need of nurses to care for themselves, not so they can keep on giving to others but because each nurse is worthy of being cared for by self. In the era of the pandemic in which stressful work environment, social distancing, and self-isolation make it difficult to maintain interconnectedness and build relationships, despair can occur. Spiritual practices are examples of the resources that can be used effectively in times of stress to reduce the negativity that life stressors create in individuals.

Death of an infant: Accessing the voices of bereaved mothers to create healing. A qualitative study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the health challenge for mothers whose infants have died and approaches and resources they used to manage the loss. BACKGROUND: The death of an infant is a devastating experience for families. Bereaved mothers have higher rates of mental distress, loneliness and isolation. While some learn to cope, others remain consumed by grief, unable to function, with persistent affective, cognitive and physical symptoms. DESIGN: Qualitative design guided by story theory. METHODS: In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with mothers 13-36 months after the death of their infant. Looking at the present, past and future, mothers were asked to describe the health challenge of losing an infant and approaches used to manage the loss. The COREQ checklist was used. RESULTS: These mothers' experiences were captured in six main themes: 'Painful aloneness', 'Blemished identity', 'Burden of being misunderstood', 'Being with and being heard', 'Being present and building a future' and 'Finding meaning in the tragedy'. In sharing their stories, mothers identified positive and negative encounters with healthcare professionals following the death of their infant. CONCLUSION: After losing an infant, mothers experience an array of challenges as they move forward. They describe their approaches used to manage the loss. This included a need to be heard, feel supported and find meaning in the loss as they try to build a new future. Their stories express a need for health care encounters to be healing, allowing mothers to feel cared for and supported on their unique journeys towards a new sense of well-being. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: In sharing their stories what matters most to these mothers having lost an infant emerged. The study findings can be used to guide nursing practice, incorporated into healthcare providers bereavement training, increase knowledge and build effective communication skills.

The Invisibility of Spiritual Nursing Care in Clinical Practice.

Background and Purpose: Spirituality has been identified as the essence of being human and is recognized, by many health care professionals, as a central component in health and healing. Scholars have identified spiritual nursing care as essential to nursing practice and include caring for the human spirit through the development of relationships and interconnectedness between the nurse and the patient. However, despite the recognition of spiritual practices as important to health, little attention has been given to spirituality in nursing practice and education in the literature. The purpose of this article is to explore factors contributing to the invisibility of spiritual nursing care practices (SNCP), recognition and offer strategies to enhance the visibility of SNCP. Two major factors that reduce visibility of SNCP are conceptual confusion differentiating between spirituality and religion and limited education in the area of spirituality including nursing curricula and organizations. Strategies to enhance visibility of SNCP include educational approaches in nursing curricula and health care organizations. to influence nurses' perceptions about spirituality and creation of a culture of spiritual care. Conclusion: Holistic nursing includes assessing and responding to the spiritual needs of patients. Changes in nursing education and health care systems are needed to increase the visibility of SNCP.

Use of spiritual coping strategies by gender, race/ethnicity, and religion at 1 and 3 months after infant's/child's intensive care unit death.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: In the United States, 57,000 children (newborn to 18 years) die annually. Bereaved parents may rely on religious or spiritual beliefs in their grief. The study's purpose was to examine differences in parents' use of spiritual and religious coping practices by gender, race/ethnicity, and religion at 1 and 3 months after infant/ICU death. METHODS: The sample consisted of 165 bereaved parents, 78% minority. The Spiritual Coping Strategies Scale was used to measure religious and spiritual coping practices, separately. One-way ANOVAs indicated that Black non-Hispanic mothers used significantly more religious coping practices at 3 months than White non-Hispanic mothers. Protestant and Catholic parents used more religious coping practices than the "no" and "other" religion groups at 1 and 3 months. Within the 30 mother-father dyads (paired t-tests), mothers reported significantly greater use of religious coping practices at 1 and 3 months and spiritual coping practices at 3 months than fathers. CONCLUSION: Religious coping practices were most commonly used by Black mothers and Protestant and Catholic parents. Within dyads, mothers used more spiritual and religious coping practices than fathers. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: These findings are beneficial for healthcare personnel in providing support to bereaved parents of diverse races/ethnicities and religions.

Parent Spirituality, Grief, and Mental Health at 1 and 3 Months After Their Infant's/Child's Death in an Intensive Care Unit.

UNLABELLED: The death of an infant/child is one of the most devastating experiences for parents and immediately throws them into crisis. Research on the use of spiritual/religious coping strategies is limited, especially with Black and Hispanic parents after a neonatal (NICU) or pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) death. PURPOSE: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to test the relationships between spiritual/religious coping strategies and grief, mental health (depression and post-traumatic stress disorder) and personal growth for mothers and fathers at 1 (T1) and 3 (T2) months after the infant's/child's death in the NICU/PICU, with and without control for race/ethnicity and religion. RESULTS: Bereaved parents' greater use of spiritual activities was associated with lower symptoms of grief, mental health (depression and post-traumatic stress), but not post-traumatic stress in fathers. Use of religious activities was significantly related to greater personal growth for mothers, but not fathers. CONCLUSION: Spiritual strategies and activities helped parents cope with their grief and helped bereaved mothers maintain their mental health and experience personal growth.