Nursing spirituality

Abstract

Has mind–body spirituality become a significant resource within the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK? And, to the extent that it is a growing presence, how is this to be explained? This paper looks at the expansion of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the NHS, and explores its connection to spirituality. In addition, the effects on healthcare professionals are examined, concentrating on the example of nursing. To introduce the argument, cultural factors, influencing nurses and patients, work together with policy directives to ensure that mind–body spirituality is an attractive way of articulating the value the NHS attaches to the patient‐centred, the whole person and ‘spirituality’.1 To pave the way, I first provide a brief summary of a recently completed research project – a project that helps explain my interest in developments within the NHS, the approach adopted in this article, and – critically – what is meant by holistic ‘mind–body spirituality’. The research by the author and his colleague (Heelas and Woodhead, 2005) was reviewed in Volume 6, No. 3 of Spirituality and Health International. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Christian Religiosity and New Age Spirituality: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

“…By contrast, those forms of spirituality in the West that help people to live in accordance with the deepest, sacred dimensions of their own unique lives can be expected to be growing” (2005:7). Critics contend that by claiming such a shift from “life‐as‐religion” to “subjective‐life spirituality,” Heelas and Woodhead have constructed an opposition between the two that does not exist on the ground (see Henriksen 2005; Ketola 2005; Sutcliffe 2006; for responses and critical reassessment, see Heelas 2007, 2008:56–59, 2009/2010). Religion and (arguably) New Age spirituality, or so these critics hold, are perfectly compatible and do not exclude one another.…”

Spirituality and secularization: nursing and the sociology of religion

“…In any case, however far ‘spirituality’ is stretched, the word still retains its religious connotations; and this, together with its place on the political agenda, gives it a certain fireproofing quality. For example, there is a significant rhetorical difference between referring to complementary therapies as ‘health‐care practices for whose efficacy there is no good evidence’ and referring to them as instruments of ‘nursing spirituality’ (Heelas 2006). Similarly, it is not self‐evidently part of a nurse's role to counsel the patient who is saddened by ‘a sense that her life has not added up in the way she would have wanted’ (Walter 2002); but describe this experience as ‘spiritual pain’, and the nurse's response as ‘spiritual care’, and the idea becomes much more resistant to attack.…”

New Zealand Nurses’ Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual care: Qualitative Findings from a National Survey

“…Whilst chaplaincy has traditionally led the provision of spiritual care, this appears to be changing as healthcare systems, patients' and spiritual needs change (Cobb 2007;Heelas 2006); there is some evidence that suggests nurses provide much of the psycho-social-spiritual care (Egan et al 2013). Spirituality in healthcare encompasses both religious and non-religious beliefs (Egan et al 2011), acknowledging that all humans have a spiritual dimension across the secular-religious continuum.…”