Nurses' Perspectives on Spiritual Caregiving: Tending to the Sacred.

Abstract

This qualitative secondary analysis explored the narratives of 14 nurses from various practice settings. Data analysis identified that although nurses share responsibility for spiritual caregiving for their patients, the ability to provide this care is greatly influenced by the extrinsic factors. Spiritual caregiving was seen as both a discrete act that facilitated patients' spiritual practices and, in other situations, took the form of integrative spiritual caregiving that was part of the interpersonal connection in the nurse-patient relationship.