Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Nursing, 5th Floor, Kompleks Pendidikan Perubatan Canselor Tuanku Ja'afar, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Faculty of Medicine, The National University of Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. arifatarhim@ppukm.ukm.edu.my
  • 2 School of Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Peninsula Campus, Frankston, VIC, Australia
  • 3 School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Science, Health and Engineering, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
J Relig Health, 2019 Feb;58(1):180-194.
PMID: 29679189 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-018-0624-0

Abstract

The increasing evidence that spirituality is a critical component for promoting health and well-being has made spirituality more significant to nursing practice. However, although nurses' perceptions of spirituality have been studied in western countries, there has been little research on this topic in Southeast Asian countries where religions other than Christianity predominate. This study explores Malaysian nurses' perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care and examines associations between socio-demographics and their perceptions. The Malaysian Nurse Forum Facebook closed group was used for data collection with 208 completed the online survey. The participants considered that spirituality is a fundamental aspect of nursing. Nonetheless, half of the respondents were uncertain regarding the use of the spiritual dimension for individuals with no religious affiliation. Significant differences were found between educational levels in mean scores for spirituality and spiritual care. There was also a positive relationship between perception of spirituality and spiritual care among the respondents. Despite the positive perceptions of nurses of spirituality in nursing care, the vast majority of nurses felt that they required more education and training relating to spiritual aspects of care, delivered within the appropriate cultural context.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.