Oncology Nurses' Spiritual Care Competence and Perspective About Spiritual Care Services

Abstract

OBJECTIVE Spiritual care is one of the main domains of cancer patients' care to improve their quality of life. Nurses should assess the patient' and caregivers' spiritual needs comprehensively. We aimed to determine the spiritual care competence of oncology nurses and their perspectives on spiritual care services. METHODS A total of 123 oncology nurses who work in the hospitals with spiritual care services in Turkey were enrolled in this study. The data were collected using the Information Form and Spiritual Care Competence Scale. RESULTS About 30.1% of the nurses stated that they care about the spiritual care needs of their patients/caregivers and 29.3% of the nurses gave information to patients and caregivers about spiritual care services and refer them to these centers. About 31.7% of nurses did not know about the role of spiritual care specialists. It was found that there is a significant and positive correlation between the age and working year of nurses and the mean scores of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale and subscale (p<0.05). The total and subscales mean scores of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale were statistically significantly different by the education level of nurses and the status of reporting the effectiveness of spiritual care services (p<0.05). CONCLUSION The results of this study show that oncology nurses' spiritual care practices are insufficient. The education level, age, and working year of the oncology nurses affect their spiritual care competencies. It is thought that oncology nurses needed to be more competent in spiritual care.