A study of nurses’ spiritual intelligence: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey

BackgroundNurse's spiritual well-being may assure a positive attitude toward spiritual care, and assist patients in overcoming spiritual distress. Spirituality is often related to one's belief system. Spirituality on the part of nurses is yet largely unheard of in a society with materialism which is one of the most destructive belief systems on the world.ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to explore the profile of spiritual intelligence among nurses, and to examine the effect of religions on nurses’ spiritual intelligence in China.DesignThis is a cross-sectional descriptive and inferential designed study.SettingsThe study was carried out in a medical center in China. Subjects were widely distributed, throughout seven provinces, with 16 hospital settings.ParticipantsA total of 130 registered hospital nurses, who were taking part in a 3-day, national nursing quality conference held by the target medical center in China, were recruited by convenience sampling.MethodsWolman's (2001) four-point Likert-type Psycho-Matrix Spirituality Inventroy (PSI) was distributed collaboratively during the period of the conference. Upon receiving oral approval from nursing administrators, the author ensured that subjects’ responses would remain confidential and that filling out the questionnaire was to be construed as willingness to participate in this study.Results1. The majority of nurses (90%) tended to experience numerous instances of physical emotional pain and suffering throughout life.2. Among the 130 subjects, only seven nurses clearly specified their religions, and religious beliefs accounted for most of the variance in the criterion variable in the study.ConclusionsExploring nurses’ spiritual profiles, especially for those who seem to be unfamiliar with spiritual matters, is a starting point on the journey to delivering spiritual care. Chinese nurses’ spiritual intelligence is only to be excavated. The study draws attention to the diverse culture of the nurses’ concepts of spirituality, which is fundamental to the delivery of truly holistic care of humans in a multi-faith society.