Nurses’ perceived spiritual climate of a hospital in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Aim This study investigated the spiritual climate of a hospital in Saudi Arabia as perceived by nurses. Background A spiritually conducive environment improves patient, nurse and organizational outcomes. Despite being important, no studies have investigated this area in the Muslim‐dominated Middle Eastern countries. Introduction A snapshot on the degree of spiritual climate perception may provide insight into the aspects that may need improvement and may become basis for the creation of health and nursing policies directed towards creating a spiritually‐accepting and respecting clinical workplace. Method A sample of 219 nurses employed in a 500‐bed capacity hospital in Saudi Arabia was included in this cross‐sectional study utilizing the spiritual climate scale. Results The nurses perceived their hospital's spiritual climate to be fair. The item ‘I am encouraged to express spirituality in this clinical area’ received the lowest mean, whereas the item ‘My spiritual views are respected in this clinical area’ received the highest mean. Being Saudi, having less total experience as a nurse, and having greater total experience as a nurse in Saudi Arabia and in the present hospital positively influenced the perception of the spiritual climate among nurses. Conclusion The findings stress the need to improve the spiritual climate in the hospital. Implications for nursing and nursing policy Hospitals are recommended to create policies to implement interventions geared towards creating a spiritually‐friendly environment. Hospitals are encouraged to create a safe place where nurses can freely express their spirituality regardless of preference or religious denomination. Spiritual education may be provided by hospitals as part of continuing education. Managers may also focus on the existential spirituality of nurses, especially for spiritually‐sensitive environments such as Saudi Arabia.

Spiritual climate in hospitals influences nurses’ professional quality of life

“…Data were obtained through a cross-sectional design using two validated questionnaires and were distributed to three different hospitals with diverse nursing staff in Saudi Arabia. The findings of the study suggest promising The modest overall score of the SC corroborates earlier studies using the same tool in Saudi Arabia (Albaqawi et al, 2019;Cruz, Alquwez, et al, 2018), China (Wu et al, 2020) and Greece (Fradelos & Tzavella, 2020). However, the score in the present study was lower than that in a study conducted in the USA (Doram et al, 2017 prior studies conducted in Saudi Arabia (Albaqawi et al, 2019;Cruz, Alquwez, et al, 2018).…”

Relationship between burnout and intention to leave amongst clinical nurses: The role of spiritual climate

“…The percentage reporting good spiritual climate and mean score of items were lower than the findings of previous studies in America and the Middle East (Cruz, Alquwez, Albaqawi, Alharbi, & Moreno‐Lacalle, ; Doram et al, ). Item 1 “I am encouraged to express spirituality in this clinical area” received the lowest mean score, which was the same as that of Cruz (Cruz, Albaqawi, et al, ).…”

Spiritual Climate as is Perceived by Greek Clinical Nurses. A Validation study

“…For the statistical analysis of the data IBM SPSS Statistics 22 was used and as the statistical signifi-Similarly, in a cross-sectional study among 212 Koreans, Kown and Oh found that increased workplace spirituality is associated with nurses' self-efficacy and safety management activities, thus reinforcing the notion spiritual climate's positive influence on nursing care. Cruz et al (9) suggested that hospitals should revoke policies and implement interventions that foster a spiritually friendly environment and create safe places where nurses can express their spirituality regardless of their religious orientation. As a result, hospital managers can improve job satisfaction among nurses.…”