Spiritual needs during COVID 19 pandemic in the perceptions of Spanish emergency critical care health professionals

Rocío de Diego-Cordero; Azahara Rey-Reyes; Juan Vega-Escaño; Giancarlo Lucchetti; Bárbara Badanta

doi:10.1016/j.iccn.2022.103373

Spiritual needs during COVID 19 pandemic in the perceptions of Spanish emergency critical care health professionals

Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2023 Jun:76:103373. doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2022.103373. Epub 2022 Dec 12.

Authors

Rocío de Diego-Cordero¹, Azahara Rey-Reyes², Juan Vega-Escaño³, Giancarlo Lucchetti⁴, Bárbara Badanta⁵

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry, Department of Nursing, University of Sevilla, c/ Avenzoar 6, 41009 Seville, Spain. Electronic address: rdediego2@us.es.
² Faculty of Health Science, University of Malaga, c/ Arquitecto Francisco Peñalosa 3, 29071 Málaga, Spain. Electronic address: azaharareyreyes@gmail.com.
³ Faculty of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry, Department of Nursing, University of Sevilla, c/ Avenzoar 6, 41009 Seville, Spain. Electronic address: jvega5@us.es.
⁴ Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Bandeirantes, Juiz de Fora, MG 36047, Brazil. Electronic address: g.lucchetti@yahoo.com.br.
⁵ Faculty of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Podiatry, Department of Nursing, University of Sevilla, c/ Avenzoar 6, 41009 Seville, Spain. Electronic address: bbadanta@us.es.

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the perceptions and attitudes of health professionals working in emergency services and critical care units in Spain about spiritual care provided during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A qualitative investigation was carried out using in-depth interviews.

Setting: Emergency and emergency and ICU health professionals from different regions of Spain.

Findings: The sample consisted of 47 nursing and one nursing assistant. The qualitative analysis yielded four main themes that reflect the following categories: "the experience with spirituality in clinical practice"; "resources and barriers to provide spiritual care"; "the COVID pandemic and spiritual care" and "training in spiritual care". In addition, two subdeliveries were also obtained: "ethical dilemma" and "rituals of death".

Conclusions: The majority of emergency and critical care nurses believe spiritual care is important to their clinical practice, but there are still several barriers to address patients' spiritual needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, professionals felt that spiritual beliefs have emerged as important needs of patients and the restrictions imposed by the pandemic made health professionals more exposed to ethical dilemmas and end-of-life religious issues. The general impression of health professionals is that more training and resources are needed on this topic.

Implications for clinical practice: Health professionals in emergency intensive care must provide nursing care that meets the spiritual needs of their patients to improve care in crisis situations such as the one suffered by the COVID-19 pandemic. For this, emergency services professionals must work and participate in the development of measures to overcome certain barriers present in emergency services, such as lack of time, lack of training and misconceptions that make it difficult to approach emergency services these needs.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical practice; Nurses; Religion; Spirituality.

MeSH terms

Attitude of Health Personnel
COVID-19*
Critical Care
Health Personnel
Humans
Pandemics*