The relationship between psychiatric nurses' spiritual care practices, perceptions and their competency

Abstract

Purpose: The research aimed to examine the relationship between psychiatric nurses' spiritual care practices, perceptions and competencies.

Methods: This study was conducted as a descriptive -correlational study. The population of the study consisted of the nurses working at Manisa Mental Health Hospital (N =134). It was intended to contact the whole of the population, and so there was no selection process. Thus, the study sample consisted of 128 nurses, who accepted to participate in the research. Spirituality Spiritual Care Rating Scale used to determine nurses' perceptions spirituality and spiritual care. Spiritual Care Competence Scale was used to evaluate the nurses' spiritual care competence.

Results: Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale of psychiatric nurses item score mean was 3.93 ± 0.49, the Spiritual Care Competence Scale of psychiatric nurses item score mean was 3.54 ± 0.63. There was no significant relationship between two scales (p > 0.05). As a result of multiple regression analysis, psychiatric nurses' which accounts for only 20.1% of spirituality and spiritual care perceptions of feel incompetent about spiritual care.

Conclusion: Psychiatric nurses' perceptions of spiritual and spiritual care were high, but their competence was at a moderete level. There was no a correlation between nurses' perceptions and competencies of spiritual care.

Keywords: Competence; Perception; Psychiatric nursing; Spiritual care; Spirituality.