The Competence of Anesthesia Students in Providing Spiritual Care to Patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Nursing, Jahrom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Jahrom, Iran

2 Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran

3 Faculty of Nursing, Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran

Abstract

Spiritual care is the newest dimension of health that is located along with other dimensions of health such as physical, mental, and social health. As one of the important and effective dimensions on human health, it requires special attention. The present study aimed to determine the competence of anesthetized students in providing spiritual care to patients in the operating room. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 120 Anesthesia students of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences in 2014. The data collection tool was "Spiritual Care Competency Scale", which has six dimensions of spiritual care review and implementation, professionalization and improvement of spiritual care, personal support and patient counseling, referral, attitude to patient spirituality and communication. The research questionnaire were presented in a five-part Likert scale reflecting their views on each statement in the questionnaire. In this study, according to the mean scores obtained, the dimension of personal protection and counseling of patients and the highest level of communication were the lowest in the spiritual care of Anesthesia students. The results can be due to attention to the moral and moral dimension in theoretical and practical education and emphasize the general view in nursing and the importance of the necessity of the teachers to prepare students to diagnose and meet the spiritual needs of patients.

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