Spiritual care: development of a nursing student resource

Abstract

Background: The growth of international migration and globalization has increasingly diversified patient populations, emphasizing the need for nursing students to provide competent spiritual care. Purpose: To comprehensively understand the teaching and learning strategies used to prepare undergraduate nursing students for spiritual care and the development of an educational resource. Methods: An integrative literature review using deductive data analysis, consultations with Northwestern Polytechnic (NWP) faculty and students, and an environmental scan were conducted. Findings from these three methods informed the development of a student Spiritual Care Quick Reference (SCQR) for clinical and a faculty Spiritual Care Educational Resource (SCER). Results: Development of a SCQR for students and a faculty SCER. Conclusions: No one strategy is best, but any combination of educational strategies (e.g., case studies, discussion, lectures, simulation) can positively impact spiritual care competency within clinical practice. The developed resource can be valuable for faculty to promote the spiritual care competency of undergraduate students.