SPIRITUAL NEEDS WITHIN NURSING : Spiritual needs as perceived by Slovenian nurses

Abstract: In this Master thesis, spiritual needs are explored. Background presents the concept of spirituality, the existence of spirituality in nursing history, theory and practice. Spirituality is interpreted as characteristics that enable a human-being to transcend (exceed) internal limitation (presented by human body and soul: intellect, emotions) and/or external limitation (time, place, ideologies, culture etc.) to be able to live according to accepted ultimate values, to fulfil life mission, to realize the optimal potential and to connect. Second focus of this master thesis is spiritual needs. First a literature study of nursing researches about spiritual needs is done. Four articles matched criteria for the literature study. The literature study showed that there is no uniformed understanding of spiritual needs. There seems to be cultural differences in perception of spiritual needs as well as differences between patients’ versus nurses’ perception of spiritual needs. Beside literature study a qualitative-quantitative research made by a descriptive survey was conducted. The research aimed to find out Slovenian nurses’ perception of spiritual needs. The research method is a manifest content analysis combined with a descriptive statistical method. The result of research shows that most of the Slovenian nurses are probably uncertain/unaware of spiritual needs, that there is a high probability that many equate spirituality with religion and that a respective number of them seems to place psychosocial needs in spiritual realm as well as in psychological realm.