Should Nurses Be Better Prepared to Meet Patients’ Spiritual Needs?

[A] survey of over 4,000 nurses found that only a small minority (5%) felt that they could always meet the spiritual needs of patients, and the vast majority (80%) felt that spirituality should be covered in nurse education as a core aspect of nursing.

The most important spiritual need identified by nurses was having respect for privacy, dignity and religious and cultural beliefs (94%). Spending time with patients giving support and reassurance especially in a time of need (90%) and showing kindness, concern and cheerfulness when giving care (83%) were also key concerns.

The above excerpt is from an article in Health News Today about a survey conducted among nurses in the UK. And here’s one more excerpt, a direct quote from a nurse who took part in the survey:

“I am a Christian. However, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to impose my beliefs on others while they are in a vulnerable position. What I do believe is that I support them in the particular spiritual needs during that time – whether they be Christian, Muslim, Atheist, whatever. It is their right to be treated as a whole, unique person and it is our duty, as nurses, to treat all our patients holistically, for the person they are and the beliefs that they hold. Physical care has to be tailored to each individual and so should spiritual care.”

But why bother? After all, who has time? Well, spirituality may affect outcomes. A 2004 article published in the Journal of Family Practice reviewed […]

2016-11-21T13:17:44-05:00May 13th, 2010|nursing perspective|3 Comments
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New Nurse Keeps Grandma’s Gutsy Resolve, Varied Career in Sights

By Cara Gewolb, BSN. Cara lives in New York City and in January completed an accelerated 15-month BSN program at New York University College of Nursing for those with previous bachelor’s degrees. This longer-than-usual post was passed along to us by Barbara Glickstein, a producer and host of Healthstyles radio show, where Cara recently talked about her grandmother’s career as a public health nurse. We post it today in honor of Nurses’ Week—and also in honor of all the nurses who have recently graduated and are looking for work in a tight market.

My grandmother Frances Reichman Lubin had been the only nurse in her family until I received a BSN in January. As a new nurse I’m a bit unsure of myself, but I’m looking for work and excited to enter my profession. While I’m interested in becoming an ER or ICU nurse, my grandmother’s diverse career reminds me to stay open to opportunity. Her career extended from the 1940s to 1970s and encompassed stints as an army nurse, public health nurse, ICU nurse, teacher, and administrator, as well as time off to raise children and further her nursing education. I keep her example as a funny, gutsy woman who always kept her sense of purpose in my sights as I go forward. She died […]

2016-11-21T13:17:45-05:00May 12th, 2010|career, narratives, Nursing|5 Comments
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Scientist, Healer, Nurse

. . . we’d sliced his chest cavity open during our dissection, rendering his beating heart clearly visible. He was pinned to a small tray and covered with a cheesecloth. I brought him home in a shoe box on a sparsely populated school bus, and placed him carefully on the coffee table in the living room.

If the above excerpt sounds like it’s lifted from the intimate memoirs of a torturer, it’s not. It’s from the May Reflections essay, “The Soul on the Head of a Pin,” which is written by Marcy Phipps (for the nicest version, click through to the PDF once you’ve reached the article at our Website). Marcy is a nurse who uses a simple, elegantly rendered childhood story to explore the sometimes unnerving gap inside every nurse between the roles of objective scientist and compassionate healer. -JM

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2016-11-21T13:17:46-05:00May 10th, 2010|career, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Think Twice Before Inserting That Feeding Tube

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN interim editor-in-chief


One of the news stories in the May issue of AJN describes the “down the road” implications for a common practice—the use of feeding tubes in patients with end-stage dementia. Feeding tubes are often placed in these patients in the acute care setting and remain as the patient moves to a nursing home for continued care.

“Feeding Tubes Used Too Often in End-Stage Dementia” discusses a study recently published in JAMA that sought to examine this practice and identify what factors are associated with its continued use “despite a body of literature showing that they aren’t effective in improving clinical outcomes or survival.”

This is an important read as it reminds us to question why we do what we do, how it will improve or enhance outcomes, and what are the implications of intervening versus not intervening? Do we “follow the protocol” because it’s convenient, or do we look ahead at implications for patients and families?

So how does your hospital stack up?

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2016-11-21T13:17:48-05:00May 6th, 2010|nursing research|0 Comments
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What to Teach Patients and Their Families About Asthma

What do you need to know about asthma, and what should you teach your patients about its prevention and management? This month’s CE article gives a comprehensive and accessible overview, with medication, symptom, and common allergen tables, as well as advice like the following about the use of “action plans,” which may be particularly helpful with patients with “moderate or severe persistent asthma, a history of exacerbations, or poorly controlled asthma.” 

Action plans should be simple and easy to use. Many use a traffic light analogy, describing green, yellow, and red zones for which specific actions are prescribed. In the green (“go”) zone, patients’ [peak expiratory flow rate] PEFR is 80% to 100% of their personal best and they have no symptoms. These patients can continue using their daily medications and taking steps to limit exposure to triggers, as described in their plan. When patients’ PEFR is 50% to 80% of their personal best and they have symptoms, they’ve entered the yellow (“caution”) zone, and practitioners may consider prescribing alternative antiinflammatory medications and, possibly, a higher dose or more frequent use of the rescue medication. Patients whose PEFR drops below 50% of their personal best and whose symptoms fail to improve significantly with prescribed rescue medications are in the red (“danger–stop”) zone. They should increase medication as indicated in their action plan and call their health care provider immediately. If unable to reach their provider, they should stop what they’re […]

2016-11-21T13:17:49-05:00May 6th, 2010|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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