Singapore Nursing Students' Perceptions and Attitudes about Spirituality and Spiritual Care in Practice: A qualitative study

Abstract

Purpose: This exploratory study investigated nursing students' perceptions and attitudes about spirituality and spiritual care in practice. Study Design: A qualitative interpretative approach was used to investigate the research question. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 16 final-year preregistration nursing students from 3 different educational institutions offering a degree or diploma program in Singapore. Data were analysed using the Miles and Huberman's method of thematic analysis. Findings: Thematic analysis identified three themes: (a) students' perceptions of spirituality, (b) spiritual care, and (c) factors influencing spiritual care in practice. Conclusion: The study informed that though young, spirituality matters to the nursing students. Accordingly, nursing is perceived to play an integral role in spiritual care. Enabling factors need to be systematically addressed both in the education and practice arenas before the perennial issue of disconnect between development and implementation of spirituality in practice can be bridged.