Implementing in-person and online educational materials in a quality improvement project to improve nursing confidence and competence in providing spiritual care

Abstract

<p><strong>Nature and Scope of the Project.&nbsp;</strong>Hospitals are held accountable for their accommodation of patient rights including cultural, personal, religious, and spiritual values. At the studied hospital, there is not a formal training curriculum for nurses on spiritual care. The objective of this quality improvement project is to implement an educational curriculum to improve nursing confidence and competence in providing spiritual care.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Synthesis and Analysis of Supporting Literature.&nbsp;</strong>There is an increased need for nursing education on spiritual competence in order to improve nursing confidence in providing spiritual care, as a literature review revealed a report by patients that spiritual care was infrequently provided by medical caregivers. Literature revealed online educational programs showed significant improvement in nursing competence in providing spiritual care. The educational curriculum implemented in this project was a PowerPoint presentation which included the Caritas Processses by Jean Watson which are universal truths to aid in providing care.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Project Implementation.&nbsp;</strong>An invitation to participate in this project was emailed to all nurses working on one unit at the studied hospital. The nurses who wished to participate were given a pre-quiz and pre-questionnaire, followed by the PowerPoint presentation. After seven weeks, a post-quiz and post-questionnaire were emailed to all nurses on the unit again.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Evaluation Criteria.&nbsp;</strong>Difficulty was encountered with obtaining a significant number of nurses willing to participate in the entirety of this project. Initially, only 11/96 nurses on the unit completed the pre-quiz and pre-questionnaire. Only 5/11 nurses who originally participated in the project completed te post-quiz and post-questionnaire and were included in the outcomes.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Outcomes.&nbsp;</strong>Two nurses improved on the post-quiz showing incresed competence, two who scored the same on both quizzes, and one who decreased their score on the post-quiz when compared to the pre-quiz. Four nurses indicated increased confidence levels on the post-questionnaire, and only one with the same confidence level on both questionnaires.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Recommendations.&nbsp;</strong>This project should be implemented on all other units at the studied hospital with a goal of disseminating the process to nursing programs of study for nurses to learn before they even begin providing care to patients.&nbsp;</p>