Chapter 45
Spirituality
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Terms
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Spirituality
Faith
Atheist
Agnostic
Religion
Hope – how important is this?
Spiritual health
Spiritual beliefs
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Meeting Spiritual Needs
 Offering a compassionate presence
 Assisting in struggle to find meaning in
face of suffering
 Fostering relationships that nurture the
spirit
 Facilitating patient’s express of religious
or spiritual beliefs and practices
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Concepts Related to
Spirituality
 Spirituality—anything that pertains to the
person’s relationship with nonmaterial life force or
higher power
 Faith—a confident belief in something for which
there is no proof or evidence
 Religion—understanding a patient’s religious
beliefs and practices assists in meeting their
spiritual needs
 Hope—ingredient in life responsible for a positive
outlook
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Beliefs Related to Faith
 Atheist—person who denies the
existence of a higher power
 Agnostic—one who holds that nothing
can be known about the existence of a
higher power
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Religious Influences
 Life affirming—enhance life, give
meaning and purpose to existence,
strengthen self, health giving and life
sustaining
 Life denying—restrict or enclose life
patterns, limit experiences and
associations, place burdens of guilt on
individuals, health denying and life
inhibiting
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Religious Beliefs
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Guide to daily living habits
Source of support
Source of strength and healing
Source of conflict
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Factors Affecting
Spirituality
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Developmental considerations
Family
Ethnic background
Formal religion
Life events
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A Child’s Perceptions of
God
 God works through intimacy and the
interconnectedness of lives
 God is involved in self-change and
growth and transformation that make the
world fresh, alive, and meaningful
 God has tremendous power, and children
show considerable anxiety in face of it
 God is an image of light
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Common Characteristic of
Religions
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Basis of authority or source of power
Portion of scripture or sacred word
Ethical code defining right or wrong
A psychology and identity
Aspirations or expectations
Some ideas about what follows death
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Nursing Diagnoses for Spiritual
Distress
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Spiritual pain
Spiritual alienation
Spiritual anxiety
Spiritual guilt
Spiritual anger
Spiritual loss
Spiritual despair
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Diagnosing
(Page 1713 – 1715)
 Readiness for enhanced spiritual well-being
 Spiritual Distress: a person experiences
disruption in belief and value system.
 Why me? (Not really expecting you to have the
answer!)
 Why has God/family deserted me?
 Anger toward God
 Requests for spiritual counsel
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Patient Goals/Outcomes
 Identify spiritual beliefs that meet needs for
meaning and purpose, love and relatedness,
and forgiveness
 Derive from these beliefs, strength, hope, and
comfort
 Develop spiritual practices that nurture
communion with inner self, God/high power,
and the world
 Express satisfaction with compatibility of
spiritual beliefs and everyday living
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Patient Goals/Outcomes —
Spiritual Distress
 Explore the origin of spiritual beliefs and
practices
 Identify factors in life that challenge
spiritual beliefs
 Explore alternatives to these challenges
 Identify spiritual supports
 Report or demonstrate decreased
spiritual distress after intervention
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Implementing Spiritual
Care
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Offering supportive presence
Facilitating patient’s practice of religion
Nurturing spirituality
Praying with a patient
Praying for a patient
Counseling the patient spiritually
Contacting a spiritual counselor
Resolving conflicts between treatment and
spiritual activities
 Nursing, religion, and conscientious objection
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Facilitating the Practice of
Religion
 Familiarize patient with religious services within
institution
 Respect patient’s need for privacy during prayer
 Assist patient to obtain devotional objects and
protect them from loss or damage
 Arrange for patient to receive sacraments if
desired
 Attempt to meet dietary restrictions
 Arrange for priest, minister, or rabbi to visit if
patient wishes
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Religions
 See Table 45 - 1, pages 1704 - 1705
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Counseling Patients
Spiritually
 Articulate spiritual beliefs
 Explore origin of patient’s spiritual beliefs and
practices
 Identify life factors that challenge patient’s
spiritual beliefs
 Explore alternatives when given these
challenges
 Develop spiritual beliefs that meet the need for
meaning and purpose, care and relatedness,
and forgiveness
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Evaluating Expected Outcomes
 Identify some spiritual belief that gives meaning
and purpose to life
 Move toward healthy acceptance of current
situation
 Develop mutually caring relationships
 Reconcile interpersonal differences causing
anguish
 Verbalize satisfaction with relationship with God
 Express peaceful acceptance of limitations and
failings
 Express ability to forgive others and live in
present
 Demonstrate interior state of joy, freedom from
anxiety and guilt
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