Making Room for Faith: Art of Spiritual Care in an Islamic Country

This study explored the perception of spirituality in nursing among Muslim nurses and their provision of spiritual care to patients. To have an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon the researchers utilized a qualitative descriptive phenomenology with eight (8) professional nurses from adult cardiac units at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center, Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The imperative data were requisite to develop themes from the conducted semi-structured guide interviews, recorded and rigorously transcribed.

The nurse participants shared experiences and personal testimonies. Seven major themes emerged: One’s Context of Spirituality, Spiritual Awareness, Attributes of Spirituality, Nurse’s Intervention, Professional Competency, Spiritual Vitality, and Care towards Spirituality. The researcher concluded that nurse’s perception of spirituality in nursing plays important role in providing spiritual care. As a result, nurses’ awareness, spiritual and professional characteristics, and nursing interventions are contributing factors to identify, acknowledge, and integrate spiritual care in nursing care delivery which facilitates positive outcomes to patient’s condition. Further, it leads the nurses to provide holistic nursing care, professional development, and promote nursing excellence services in PSCC.

The findings of the research empowered the researchers to formulate a program, and recommendations that are significant in the provision of spiritual care which are to be institutionalized in nursing practice, and nursing education that focus on the support, and reinforcement of nurses in Prince Sultan Cardiac Center.