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Learning Activity Content

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Health Promotion in Practice

Since the time of Florence Nightingale, nurses have recognized that they address the spiritual needs of their patients, but this still remains one of the most nebulous aspects of nursing care. When asked about providing spiritual care, most nurses know that they “do it,” but they have difficulty describing what “it” is. Even though major nursing and health care organizations emphasize the importance of nurses addressing the spiritual needs of patients, assessment questions are usually limited to obtaining information about a patient’s religious affiliation. Similarly, interventions often focus on initiating referrals to chaplains or other spiritual advisors for patients who have a religious affiliation. This approach may be adequate for some patient care situations, but it does not necessarily address the need for a spiritual connectedness that all humans experience. This chapter focuses on relatively simple actions that nurses can incorporate as an integral part of usual nursing care to identify and address the spiritual needs of their patients.

It is important to become comfortable discussing spiritual needs of patients because all humans have spiritual needs even though they may not identify with a religion. 

Let us consider the following scenario: 

You are a nurse manager working in a Catholic hospital, and you have been told by some of your nurses that the ‘new hire RN’ feels uncomfortable discussing religion with their patient because they do not have any religious affiliation. 

Discuss how you would, as the MANAGER of the unit, address their discomfort, and ensure they still feel a part of the team even if their religious affiliations are not the same as that of the institution. 

Key points to remember in your discussion are that many spiritual practices individuals engage in can be adopted to multiple scenarios and it is important to develop an inquisitive and open-minded approach when you listen to patients and colleagues talk about their religious practices.

Please remember for discussion posts: the initial post must be uploaded by the WEDNESDAY of the week and two replies to your peers by Saturday at 2359.

Please note the grading rubric for the discussion board.

As a reminder, all discussion posts must be a minimum of 250 words, references must be cited in APA format 7th Edition and must include a minimum of 2 scholarly resources published within the past 5 years.

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