The role of spirituality in coping with the demands of the hospital culture amongst fourth-year nursing students

Abstract

The aim of this research was to describe the role of spirituality in coping with the demands of the hospital culture amongst fourth-year nursing students. Qualitative, descriptive, hermeneutic interpretive research was done. A case study of 14 female Canadian nursing students was asked to write an essay on their experiences of the demands of the hospital culture. Content analysis was used and positive psychology served as the interpretive lens. Trustworthiness and ethicality were ensured. The findings indicated that although the nursing students expressed themselves in religious and spiritual words, they did not significantly illustrate the theoretically associated intra-, interpersonal and sacred behaviours to be referred to as being spiritual in their experience as a care giver in the hospital culture. They also did not illustrate behaviours linked to other positive psychology constructs such as sense of coherence, resilience, engagement or emotional intelligence. Rather, the nursing students experienced identity crises. Recommendations for the inclusion of mentoring in the curriculum of nursing students were formulated.

The mediating role of spirituality on professional values and self‐efficacy: a study of senior nursing students

“…Nursing educators must establish strategies to enhance self‐efficacy based on professional values. Recently, nursing research has focused on spirituality as a reflective tool for enhancing self‐efficacy and allowing people to deal with difficult situations (Puchalski & Guenther , Cilliers & Terblanche , Adegbola ). Senior nursing students are going to become nurses and meet with difficult patients in diverse situations very soon.…”

“…Nursing educators should develop specific curricula to help senior nursing students in the transition to professional life, before they go to work in hospitals. Recently, nursing research has become interested in spirituality as a means of helping people develop self‐efficacy and be able to deal with difficult situations (Puchalski & Guenther , Cilliers & Terblanche , Adegbola ). Spirituality is defined as an individual pursuit for meaning and purpose in life and transcendental truth, including a sense of connectedness with the self, others and the world (Puchalski & Guenther ).…”

The Handbook of Salutogenesis

“…On the one hand, the recommended interventions refer to improvements of potentially strenuous work conditions such as high work load (e.g., Rabin et al, 2011) or generally adverse working conditions (Malinauskiene et al, 2011). On the other hand, support of individual staff members is recommended in form of supervision (Berg & Hallberg, 1999;Palsson et al, 1994), mentoring (Cilliers & Terblanche, 2014), mindfulness meditation (Foureur, Besley, Burton, Yu, & Crisp, 2013), training and peer support (Michael & Jenkins, 2001), or targeted support for staff with burn-out symptoms (Tselebis et al, 2001). Some authors also recommend a combination of organization-and individual-related interventions (e.g., Cilliers, 2003;Reid et al, 2004) as both may contribute to a better use of coping resources (Lewis et al, 1994).…”

Exploring the Relationship between Nursing Students’ Resilience and Spirituality in a Critical Care, End-Of-Life Care Simulation

“…Participants were asked to write an essay based upon their hospital experiences. Trustworthiness of the data was secured, and the findings demonstrated that students did not demonstrate spiritual intelligence; rather, internal conflict was evident and spiritual coping did not transpire [22,24].…”