Notes on article by N. E. Conner and L. S. Eller “Spiritual perspectives, needs and nursing interventions of Christian African–Americans”

The article concludes that “the potential for spiritual care to influence both the psychological and physiological health of patients either directly or indirectly speaks to the urgency of providing patients with appropriate spiritual assessment and interventions” (631).  I found this to be the most important part of the article, because while the authors had chosen to explore one subgroup as an example of the spiritual needs of the patients, this conclusion refers to all patients.

“Respondents also wrote in their need for nurses to pray with and share personal beliefs with them. We found that 41% of desired spiritual nursing interventions were related to nurses’ direct participation in spiritual activities, including praying with the patient and reading spiritual materials to them. Our participants clearly desired more from nurses than referral to spiritual leaders to meet their spiritual needs.” (p. 630)

This quote reveals the desire of patients to be cared for  by the nurses who would share the spiritual beliefs with them. The research found that prayer is the most frequently reported spiritual need in the given sample and is similar to other reports. So, basically, people want nurses to pray with them. 

While I agree with the other requests, such as for nurses to show care and compassion, and to be willing to refer the patients to the spiritual care or connect them with a pastor etc., demanding that nurses pray with the patients, in my opinion, may be going a bit too far. One of the comments was: ‘First the nurse should know who she is and why she is on the job’ (629);  I would say, EXACTLY!