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Aims: To describe the current 'state of the art' in relation to spiritual assessment, focusing on quantitative, qualitative and generic approaches; to explore the professional implications of spiritual assessment; and to make practical recommendations to managers seeking to promote spiritual assessment in their places of work., Method: The paper integrates aspects of a recent systematic review of quantitative approaches to measuring spirituality and a recent meta-synthesis of qualitative research into client perspectives of spiritual needs in health and the principles of generic assessment, before drawing on the wider literature to discuss a number of professional implications and making recommendations to nurse managers., Implications for Nursing Management: The issues to emerge from this paper are (1) that spiritual assessment is an increasingly important issue for nursing practice, (2) that the range of reliable and valid quantitative instruments for use in clinical practice is limited, (3) that there is overlap in the domains and categories of spirituality identified by quantitative and qualitative researchers, and (4) that nurse managers seeking to introduce spiritual assessment will do so in the context of a professional debate about the relevance of spirituality to contemporary practice., (© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)

Background: There is a professional requirement for student nurses to achieve competence in the delivery of spiritual care. However, there is no research exploring students nurses perceptions of being educated in these matters., Aim: This paper explores the ethical basis of teaching student nurses about the concepts of spirituality and spiritual care by reporting the findings from the first year of a 3 year investigation., Design: An exploratory longitudinal design was used to obtain student nurses perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care as they progressed through a 3 year programme., Method: A questionnaire incorporating the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale was distributed to 176 pre-registration nursing students undertaking either the Advanced Diploma or Bachelor of Science degree programmes., Results: A response rate of 76.7% was obtained. Findings reveal that the majority of student nurses perceived spirituality to be a universal phenomenon of a type that can be associated with existentialism. Some students were very uncertain and apprehensive about being instructed in spiritual matters., Conclusion: A cohort of student nurses held similar understandings of spirituality to those presented in the nursing literature. However the results also suggest an overwhelming majority felt it was wrong for spirituality to imply that some people are better than others and most were uncertain whether spirituality was related to good and evil. RELEVANCE TO NURSE EDUCATION: The investigation reveals that there are a number of ethical concerns surrounding the teaching of spirituality to student nurses that need to be resolved.

A postal survey, containing a questionnaire and covering letter, was distributed to 1029 ward-based nurses, of all grades, in a Large NHS Trust in an attempt to establish how nurses perceived spirituality and spiritual care. A response rate of 55.3% (n = 549) was obtained. Part of the questionnaire contained "The Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale" (SSCRS) a newly constructed instrument to aid the investigation and measurement of Spirituality and Spiritual Care. Factor Analysis was performed in an attempt to establish construct validity and to identify any underlying associations between items in the scale. It suggested a 17-item instrument with four factor-based subscales: Spirituality, Spiritual Care, Religiosity and Personalised Care. The 17-item SSCRS demonstrated a reasonable level of internal consistency reliability, having a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.64. Confirmatory Factor Analysis is recommended in order to cross-validate and refine this new Rating Scale., (Copyright 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd.)

Barriers to inclusion of a spiritual dimension in British nursing education may be intrinsic to institutions, pressured by curriculum reforms and resource limitations, or extrinsic, due to the nature of the modern materialistic, secular society. There are ways that nursing schools can attempt to introduce this dimension. (SK)

Aims and objectives To investigate the beliefs of recently bereaved people about death and to explore the implications of these beliefs for bereavement care. Background Little is known about recently bereaved people's beliefs about death, although there is evidence that these beliefs may have an impact on health. The funeral provides an opportunity for bereaved people to reflect on their beliefs about death. Design A qualitative approach. Methods This paper describes one aspect of an interdisciplinary study of the spirituality of contemporary funerals. We obtained access to 46 funerals through funeral directors and other contacts, and interviewed principal mourners to explore their beliefs. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically. Results Three themes emerged that reflected the beliefs and experiences of bereaved people. The first theme describes people's understanding of death in terms of five positions: religious, dualist, eco-spiritualist, materialist and death-as-transition. The second theme addresses a range of views about the possibility of life after death: resurrection, reuniting and reincarnation. The third theme describes ways in which people felt that their relationship with the deceased person continues after death: continuity as sense of presence and continuity as memory, legacy and love. Some people were reluctant to express a firm view about death. Conclusions People express a spectrum of beliefs about death. Their beliefs are infrequently linked to formal religious or spiritual perspectives but seem to have an important role in coping with bereavement. Relevance to clinical practice This is a unique study illustrating the complexity of bereaved people's beliefs about death. The study provides a research-based framework within which to understand contemporary beliefs about death, and contributes to our understanding of how health professionals can support recently bereaved people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the professional ethics of spiritual assessment by health professionals. Recent developments in the literature suggest that there is growing interest in the practice of spiritual assessment. We begin by reviewing recent publications in the nursing and wider health literature that describe generic, quantitative, and qualitative approaches to spiritual assessment. We then link these methods to specific discourses of spirituality. We suggest there are three major discourses, namely evidence-based, secularist, and critical spiritualities. We conclude our paper by outlining a number of professional-ethical implications of spiritual assessment. We explore whether the nursing mandate extends to include the more intrusive forms of spiritual assessment. We express doubt as to whether there is sufficient evidence in favor of spiritual interventions to validate the practice of spiritual assessment, and we note the tensions that exist, especially in the United Kingdom, concerning the provision of spiritual care in publicly funded health care. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is growing comment in both academic and popular writing about the shape and content of funerals today, with general agreement that we are seeing marked changes with a growing trend towards secularisation and personalisation. Despite this, there is as yet relatively little systematic research on the topic. This article reports on a study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK into spirituality in contemporary funerals. This qualitative study centred around case studies of 46 funerals in the north of England and gathered data from observations of funeral arrangement meetings as well as the funeral and semi-structured interviews with bereaved families and funeral professionals. The way both sets of participants engaged with the funeral and its constituent elements in an active process of meaning-seeking, meaning-creating and meaning-taking was closely aligned with contemporary understandings of humanistic spirituality. There was, however, little evidence of adherence to formal religious belief systems or wider philosophical frameworks amongst the bereaved families but considerable evidence of drawing on religious tradition and specific beliefs to locate personal meaning-making. The authors conclude that the funeral remains a significant ceremonial event which is psycho-social-spiritual in character and purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Editorial. Tackles the concept of spirituality in nursing. Significance of the concept to the field of nursing; Problems with the application of the concept; Assessment of patients' spiritual needs.