Aims:
To investigate spiritual caring by palliative care nurses and to describe their interventions.
Background:
Spirituality and spiritual caring are recognised as integral components of holistic nursing.
Design:
Qualitative data captured on a questionnaire were analysed thematically (Braun and Clarke, 2006).
Methods:
The study involved forty-two palliative care registered nurses working across seven palliative care services in Sydney, Australia. The research question was: ‘What spiritual caring interventions do palliative care nurses use in their practice?’ Nurses completed an open-ended questionnaire to identify and interpret their spiritual caring.
Findings:
Three sub-theme categories and four major concepts of spiritual caring. Categories identified are: humanistic, pragmatic and religious interventions; while concepts of spiritual caring are: ‘being with’, ‘listening to’, ‘facilitation of’ and ‘engaging in’.
Conclusion:
A conceptual understanding of spiritual caring was identified.