Nurse opinions about initiating spiritual conversation and prayer in patient care.
AIM
The aim of this study was to understand nurses' opinions about initiating spiritual or religious conversation during patient care and to measure how these perspectives are associated with demographic, religious and work-related characteristics.


BACKGROUND
Nurses are expected to provide spiritual care and do so in diverse ways. Little is known about how nurses think about initiating spiritual or religious discourse.


DESIGN
Cross-sectional, quantitative.


METHODS
Online survey methods allowed data collection from 445 nurses. The survey, accessed from the homepage of the Journal of Christian Nursing for 6 months beginning June 2015, included scales measuring various facets of religiosity, and items assessing nurse opinions about introducing spirituality or religion during patient care and demographic and work-related variables. Variables showing significant associations with Nurse Opinion items in bivariate analyses were examined using binary logistic regression.


RESULTS
About 90% of participants believed it appropriate to initiate conversation about spirituality/religion and nearly three-quarters thought it appropriate to self-disclose spirituality/religion or offer prayer under certain circumstances or anytime. All personal religiosity indicators except tentativeness of belief were found to be associated with responses to Nurse Opinion items. That is, higher religiosity was associated with opinion one could initiate such conversations, whereas lower religiosity was associated with waiting for patients to initiate. Nurses working in a faith-based organization were 276% more likely to believe they could initiate such conversation and 153% more likely to think they could initiate an offer of prayer.


CONCLUSION
Nurse religiosity and work environment were associated with nurse opinions about initiating spiritual/religious discourse with patients.
['Taylor|Elizabeth Johnston|EJ|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6790-8801', 'Gober-Park|Carla|C|', 'Schoonover-Shoffner|Kathy|K|', 'Mamier|Iris|I|', 'Somaiya|Chintan K|CK|', 'Bahjri|Khaled|K|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel D002835:Christianity D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009740:Nursing Staff D005791:Patient Care D012067:Religion D029181:Spirituality D055815:Young Adult
spirituality conversation prayer spiritual care survey methods religion nurses/midwives/nursing self-disclosure