Assessment of nurse's professional competence in spiritual care in Kashan's hospitals in 2014

Spiritual care has the crucial role in the health and welfare of patient and her/his family. Being competent in the provision of spiritual care is necessary for all of the healthcare professionals and especially for nurses. Given the importance of spiritual care، and the crucial role of assessing this competency، this study aimed to evaluate the professional competence of a sample of nurses in the area of spiritual care. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. The study population consisted of all nurses worked in hospitals affiliated with Kashan University of Medical Sciences. The instrument was a scale for assessment of the nurses’ competencies in spiritual care (SANCSC). Data analysis performed using SPSS/11. 5 software. The study was conducted on 239 nurses. The mean of the nurses’ overall competence in spiritual care was 99. 64 ± 25. 95. The mean score was 46. 70 ± 17. 54 in the domain of performance and evaluation، 20. 68 ± 4. 60 in the domain of human values، 11. 85 ± 3. 12 in the domain of awareness، 11. 28 ± 2. 78 in the domain of attitudes، and 7. 50 ± 1. 54 in the domain of self-recognition. Nurses who worked in emergency departments had the least competence in spiritual caring. The present study showed that nurses had not appropriate competence in providing spiritual care. Most of them were not trained on this issue. More attention should be paid to this issue.