Introduction
Spiritual well-being is fundamental in an individual’s life. In the article abridged by Mauk and Schmidt (2004), spiritual care in nursing practice (an original published by the National Library of Medicine) elaborates on nurses’ competency in providing spiritual care to their subsequent patients. Therefore, arguments drawn from the arguments presented in the empirical findings are fundamental in constructing reflective accounts of individual thoughts regarding ideas, feelings involving spiritual well-being, and their subsequent application in the nursing field. In reflecting on the spiritual well-being in the nursing field, I draw arguments from Akbari and Hossaini (2018) arguments, who explain that individuals’ spiritual aspects are closely correlated with their psychological, social and physical aspects.
Therefore, I deduce that spiritual health is a fundamental aspect of the human lifestyle and health arising from the arguments. Nurses, alongside other health practitioners, face diverse patients in the nursing career, some of whom are on the brink of losing hope of living. As a result, the spiritual well-being is applicable in the nurses’ area of work based on two paradigms; how they handle the patients by giving them necessitated hope and how they handle themselves in times of challenges example, when they encounter difficult situations, for instance, the patient’s with a terminal illness or when their line of work is challenging. The subsequent sections of the article draw readings from Mauk and Schmidt (2004) alongside other relevant literal arguments in synthesizing chronological spiritual, reflective account and its application in the nursing career.
A reflection on the concepts related to spirituality
Spiritual well-being is incomplete without including concepts such as suffering, hope, compassion, grace, and forgiveness. In reflecting on the concepts, nurses often encounter people with these challenges, more so when experiencing a challenging health issue. I correlate my thoughts regarding the instigated concepts, such as the suffering concepts, with Hu et al. (2019) citations. Most of the patients at a given health facility are often in pain and suffer due to their diverse health challenges. For example, a patient with burns experiences a lot of pain due to physical pain. The emotional suffering is drawn from the fear of losing their lives and failing to see another day. According to various studies, the suffering concept is quite difficult to comprehend as it occurs differently in different persons. In a health facility, nurses encounter those who suffer, as indicated above, and most times, these people begin to question “why they were the ones to experience their suffering fate?”
Understanding the suffering these patients are undergoing in the nursing field requires spiritual well-being. In this, spiritual well-being in the nursing field will help the suffering patients accept the current situation and understand that they are not suffering alone. Reflecting on Salzmann-Erikson and Dahlén (2017) perceptions, nurses act as a bridge of hope and help the patients overcome their feelings of despair and hopelessness. In addition, encourage the patients by using therapeutic input to reduce physical suffering. Additionally, helping their patients perform their distinct religious rituals; can help them accept their current situation. In my perception, accepting their situation helps generate inner strength, which is critical in facilitating healing in the patients. For example, a patient involved in an accident loses a leg. They are bound to experience immense pain resulting from the afflicted wound in the first days. Subsequently, they experience self-loathe, resulting from their thinking about how life will be as they have lost their leg. When encountering such a patient, a nurse can use therapeutic input to help the patients learn to live with one leg. In addition, the emotional acceptance will result from indulging in religious rituals to help them in their acceptance journey, which in the long run reduces emotional suffering.
Another concept regarding spirituality, according to Krause et al. (2018), another concept regarding spirituality is hope, which is defined as an emotion that enables people to endure suffering due to the optimistic feelings emitted within an individual. Nurturing hope is crucial responsibility among nurses in their line of patient care. Studies by Ersek (1992), Ebright and Lyon (2002) and presented by Graham (2021) involving patients with neurological diseases, cancer and AIDS correlated strong evidence between positive health outcomes and hope. Other additional studies linked hope with spiritual well-being, enhanced self-esteem and self-transcendence. In the nursing career, in my opinion, giving hope to patients is fundamental as it helps the patient recover more positively. My thoughts coincide with Graham (2021) presentations, correlating hope with a heightened healing process.
When a patient is hopeful, it increases their trust in the outside world in most cases. In addition, through hope, patients believe in their cure, relief of pain and sequentially, their safe return to home. Nurses should listen to their patients as they express their fear regarding their illness in issuing hope. Additionally, in issuing hope, nurses should consider the patient’s participation by enhancing the patient-nurse relationship. This can be facilitated through increasing communication, for example, when a nurse asks how a patient is faring, actively listening to a patient’s concerns and worries, alongside indulging a patient in performing their religious rituals concerning their religion.
Engaging with the patient, in my opinion, will help a patient feel less alone. Furthermore, reflecting on the bridges that hope does in an individual, nurses who listen to their patients and help them through their spiritual journeys, such as reading their respective religious books, increase their spiritual health. Moreover, nurses could engage the institution and assign the patient with therapeutic sessions through which time will contribute to changing their views regarding their illness, thus synthesizing positive health outcomes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, spiritual well-being is fundamental to an individual’s health outcome. Drawing from the reflective accounts instigated in the article, spiritual well-being is equally important in the nursing career as they help patients through their recovery journey.
References
Akbari, M., & Hossaini, S. M. (2018). The relationship of spiritual health with quality of life, mental health, and burnout: The mediating role of emotional regulation. Iranian journal of psychiatry, 13(1), 22.
Graham, F. (2021). Do hospital nurses recognise pain in older agitated patients with cognitive impairment? A descriptive correlational study using virtual simulation (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology).
Hu, Y., Jiao, M., & Li, F. (2019). Effectiveness of spiritual care training to enhance spiritual health and spiritual care competency among oncology nurses. BMC palliative care, 18(1), 1-8.
Krause, N., Pargament, K. I., & Ironson, G. (2018). In the shadow of death: Religious hope as a moderator of the effects of age on death anxiety. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 73(4), 696-703.
Mauk, K. L., & Schmidt, N. A. (Eds.). (2004). Spiritual care in nursing practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Salzmann-Erikson, M., & Dahlén, J. (2017). Nurses’ establishment of health promoting relationships: A descriptive synthesis of anorexia nervosa research. Journal of child and family studies, 26(1), 1-13.
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