New insights into spiritual intelligence in nursing education

Background: The topic of spiritual care is challenging with evidence suggesting student nurses feel unprepared to deal with these issues. Spiritual care should be included as part of holistic practice but is complex in the multicultural setting of healthcare. This thesis developed to explore student nurses’experiences to aid learning and develop best practice around the topic.

Study Aim: Explore undergraduate nursing students’ lived experiences that develop their understanding of spiritual care.

Literature Review: A meta-narrative literature review was undertaken which produced four key themes: integrating spiritual care into the curriculum; self-awareness around spiritual issues; spiritualcare as part of holistic care; andcompetency in spiritual care.

Methodology and methods: An interpretative phenomenological approach, based on Van Manen’s work (2014),has been utilised for this study. Data werecollected using asemi-structured interview strategy.

Participants: A purposeful sample of ten undergraduate nursing students took part in the study from adult and mental health nursing degree courses.

Analysis: Analysis involved descriptive and interpretative phases. The conversations were described using portraiture and interpreted using lifeworld phenomenological existential themes of lived body (corporality), lived time (temporality), lived space (spatiality), lived relations (relationality), materiality (lived things) and technology (lived cyborg relations). A creative writing of the phenomenological insights was used to explorenew insights into the topic area.

Results: The findings showed that there were significant similarities with current literature as presented in the earlier review. New insights from this study werethe need to develop student nurses’ spiritual intelligence as a way to combine the cognitive, emotional and spiritual aspects when providing spiritual care.

Discussion: A Spiritual Intelligence in Nurse Education Framework is proposed and discussed as a method to educate student nurses about the topic. The framework includes elements of meaning and purpose,transcendence, goals and decision making, and character as key in developing understanding about spiritual care, linking to holistic practice and building the student nurse’s personal and professional virtues.