Spirituality in Nursing Care - Essay Example

? Spirituality in Nursing Care Task Introduction The inevitable increase in diversity in the world is making medical practitioners to encounter continuously variations in religions, cultures in the course of providing medical care. The various advances in technology are leading to many inventions and discoveries that are slowly and steadily detaching humanity from its spiritual foundation. Consequently, the subject of spirituality is at the heart of both medical practitioners and their patients. This is because all people are spiritual and that spiritual care largely contributes to the process of healing. Moreover, rehabilitation patients usually need a lot of spiritual care than patients in other healthcare areas because of their condition. Even though the duties in nursing practice always involve the provision of ethical and competent nursing services to patients, their profession widely involves provision of direct services that involve interactions between the person, health and environment. However, training in this area of spiritual care is seldom provided since most of the training is focused on emotional, social, cultural, physical and psychological aspects of the client. The nurse, therefore lacks the ability to provide spiritual care. Many nurses feel uncomfortable in accessing a client’s spiritual realm because of the abstract nature of the elements of spirituality. Others find it difficult to develop appropriate methods to access this spiritual area. Moreover, the strict standards of practice make it difficult for nurses to indulge in spiritual care since these standards are self-regulating (Basavanthappa, 2007). Spirituality usually provides patients with a scope to view the world that they live in and, therefore involves an individual’s greatest threats and ambition. Proper understanding of spirituality and its consequences on mental health is a prerequisite to compassionate and appropriate spiritual attendance. Spiritual values that inform nursing care For a smooth spiritual transformation, nurses must have a proper comprehension of the right spiritual values to instil on their patients. They have to understand how a patient’s understanding of the world relates to their personal understanding of spirituality. Some of the spiritual values that can be applied by the nurses to bring about spiritual nourishment to their patients include: Compassion Compassion refers to the ability to control our impulsive and compulsive reactivity. For the nurses to take their patients through the road of spiritual nourishment, they have to have control over negative emotions that might arise because of interacting with their patients. These emotions can be manifested in form of frustrations, anger or impatience with patients. The nurses through dialogue should continuously encourage their patients to take a courageous look at their heir shortcomings in order to establish a balance between detachment and compassion. This balance represents success in spiritual progress as the patient grows in their ability to control rash reactivity and the reward being a relieving sense of detachment. Purity In such a situation, the patient views the nurse as an example of a healer. The nurse should ensure that the treatment given to their patients should be of high quality, since they represent the perfect example of such a quality. This is necessary to keep the patient growing because the treatment will be a perfect reflection of the provider who in this sense is purported to be pure. The patient should be put in the right frame of thinking to give room for positive thoughts that are vital for purification of their mind. This will be achieved since the patients will strive to emulate the perfect character of their attendants. Forgiveness Through the process of effective counselling, the nurse should bring out the concept of imperfection to the patient. The patient should realise that all the things that we encounter in this world are seldom perfect. The main objective should be to put the patients in the right mood to get rid of self-hatred elements that they might have harboured towards the world. These might be feelings of resentment, anger, and bitterness. This should be done through the process of self-forgiveness by encouraging the patients to share these negative elements of resentments with them, which leads to faster healing (Matzo & Sherman, 2010). Humility This refers to the ability to bear, tolerate and cope up with others with an open mind and heart. It is manifested through the attendant’s ability to listen and demonstrate a sense of understanding through empathy and pity of another’s situation. The patient should feel understood for them to let go of the lack of enthusiasm that they may hold. The nurse should put forward this harmonic sense of understanding to provide the ample silence and space for the patient to put forth their grievances. This helps to relieve anxiety and stress and eventually harmonizes the mental wellbeing. Love It represents the eventual result of compiling many spiritual qualities by individuals. The nurses should always feel good about themselves. This helps to boost our self-confidence, self-purpose and self-esteem that are major components that further our self-love. Processes of self-exploration make individuals feel good about themselves can perfect these. Nurses should always strive to maintain a positive character to increase the chances of succeeding in spiritual nourishment (Matzo & Sherman, 2010). Gratitude Stresses individuals should always be thankful for their existence in this world. Therefore, one should never spend a greater part of their life whining and complaining about the various challenges that they go through. We have a limited time in this world and should always strive to move forward. The nurses should learn to cultivate a sense of appreciation in their clients to aid them in cultivating an extraordinary power that is vital for spiritual success. Barriers to Expression of Spiritual Values in Nursing Practise Even though the primary objective of nursing is aiding other people to achieve what they want for themselves in a bid to prevent the occurrence of illnesses or the restoration of health, many nursing services involve aspects of spiritual support. These are expressed in the form of spending time with the patients, listening and responding to their concerns that are both spiritual and therapeutic. However, this is never sufficient since nurses are faced with more challenging tasks that require advanced expertise in handling such situations. As a result, they usually face different barriers to make it difficult to guide their patients to a level of therapeutic spiritual nourishment. Health care attendants like nurses lack the competent skills and expertise that are vital for effective administration of conclusive spiritual care. Most healthcare provider courses focus on the physical, emotional, psychological, social and cultural aspects of a clients health needs. Medical practitioners are seldom trained to deal with the spiritual aspect of medical care. The abstract natures of spiritual beliefs in most cases discourage nurses and prevent them from engaging in inquiries about the spiritual beliefs of their patients. Others find it difficult to develop effective instruments that can be used to access clients spiritual beliefs and thus, less emphasis is placed in this area (Daniels, 2004). For delivery of spiritual care, it is imperative that the nurses should have a proper understanding of their own beliefs and values and their level of satisfaction with them. However, this is not the case for many medical attendants who cannot further comprehend how their worldviews form the basis of spiritual beliefs that are integrated into their lives. This further diminishes the confidence and competence that are a prerequisite for successful spiritual care (Matzo & Sherman, 2010). The incorporation of spiritual care into nursing has been affected by the diversification of language for explaining matters pertaining to the spiritual area. The existence of diverse cultures has led to different interpretations of spirituality. Many standpoints have emerged to explain different concepts of spirituality like God and prayer. Each culture has adopted its unique language to describe spiritual values and experiences since it is not limited to any religious point of view. The nurses may have different religious persuasion to their patients. This limits the extent of spiritual care since they lack the appropriate language relevant to the distinctive patients needs. The existence of the different religious persuasions can be attributed to the polarization of science that leads to adoption of religious viewpoints like dualism, which advocates for the separation of the spirit and matter (Dossey & Keegan, 2009). Healthcare materials do not have information related to spirituality. The materials that contain this information always brush aside issues of the self that forms the core force of spirituality. These involve large descriptions of concepts that emphasize categories greater than the self-does. Lack of focus on the individual sidelines personal values grounded from spirituality that gets their sense of direction from within. Manifestations of spirituality such as trust and a sense of inner peace involve both strength and guidance from within that help individuals to learn from experience, develop new awareness and appreciate the way in which spirituality gives meaning to life. These help in understanding the mystery that underlies concepts like religion (Dossey &Keegan, 2009). Mental illnesses involve the various changes that occur to an individual’s behavioural and psychological state. The variations result in weird patterns of behaviour that deviate from normal functioning of the body. These disruptions may interfere with an individual’s mood, thinking and socialization patterns that may make it tricky to cope up with the various challenges of life. However, they are medical conditions treatable when appropriately timed to avert any disaster to an individual’s mental faculties. However, therapeutic communication is not the sure way of guaranteeing spiritual success. This is because different factors usually influence human relationships and it is difficult to establish the correct skills, methods and patterns of applying during communication to guarantee success in communication. This is evident when individuals continuously forget information that had been earlier communicated. There nurse should develop unique skills, methods to facilitate communication with the patients. These can be used in various situations where conversations prop up. The skills should be a foundation to assist future conversation between the nurse and the patient. This would eventually strengthen their relationship to pave way for effective satisfaction during spiritual care. The nurses play an important role in the process of treating these disorders. Since they are always in constant interaction with their patients and are able to share conversations, it is easier to determine the correct methodology to treat the brain malfunctions. The nurses should be given a considerable amount of authority. This should be in line with their levels of responsibility. This allows for participation in governance matters and allows them to address issues that they encounter from patients appropriately (Harrison, Hart & Hart, 2006). The nurse should ensure that their relationship with their patient is covered by mutual respect, trust and honesty. They should avoid manipulating or intimidating their patients to enable patients fully disclose information that aid in full spiritual diagnosis and care. This is done by considering the patients conviction and spiritual needs (Veatch, 2000). The nurse should desist from any form of prejudice when dealing with patients. The differences in culture between the nurse and the patient should never be a point of concern when addressing mental disorder. The nurse should desist from letting their cultural affiliation influence the skills and methodology that they adopt when communicating with their patients. Cultural diversity affects the relationship between the nurse and their patients. This limits the extent of spiritual satisfaction. Both parties should ensure professional ethical guidelines are followed during any form of interaction between the two parties (Berry, 1997). With the rapid technological revolutions that are sweeping across the globe, it is apparent that the need for spiritual nourishment will be on the rise. Important measures must be taken to address the inevitable need of spiritual care in healthcare settings. Research should be carried out to devise new methodologies of approaching spiritual care. Appropriate and diversified training should be employed to ensure healthcare providers are equipped with the necessary skills to help patients in overcoming problems that require urgent spiritual care to avert a looming crisis of spiritual emptiness in society. References Berry, J. W. Poortinga, Y. H. and Pandey, J. (1997). Handbook of cross-cultural psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Basavanthappa, B. T. (2007). Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. New Delhi: Jaypee Brothers. College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta. (2005). Nursing Practice Standards, College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta. Retrieved on January 11, 2012 from: < www.nurses.ab.ca> Daniels, R. and R2 Library. (2004). Nursing fundamentals: Caring & clinical decision making. Australia: Delmar Learning. Dossey, B. M. Keegan, L. & American Holistic Nurses' Association. (2009). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Graham, P.E.M. (2008). Nursing Students’ Perception of How Prepared They Are To Assess Patients’ Spiritual Needs, Dissertation. Retrieved on January 11, 2012 from: < www.peekyou.com/patricia_mahon > Harrison, A. (2006). Mental health care for nurses: Applying mental health skills in the general hospital. Oxford: Blackwell. Matzo, M. & Sherman, D. W. (2010). Palliative care nursing: Quality care to the end of life. New York: Springer. Rieg, L.S., Mason, C.H and Preston, K. (2006). Rehabilitation Nursing, Spiritual Care: Practical Guidelines for Rehabilitation Nurses Vol 31(6). Veatch, R. M. (2000). Cross-cultural perspectives in medical ethics. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. Read More