Sammendrag
Background: Spiritual care for people with dementia who are in nursing homes is one aspect of the holistic care
provided by nurses. A number of studies have explored the concepts of spirituality and religiosity, but fewer studies
describe how nurses provide spiritual care in practice. The Purpose of the study was thus to investigate how nurses
and care workers can provide spiritual care for people with dementia who live in nursing homes.
Methods: This is a qualitative study with an exploratory design using a phenomenological–hermeneutic approach.
Interviews were conducted in eight focus groups with 31 nurses and care workers in 4 Norwegian nursing homes.
Results: The nurses were unsure about whether they actually provided spiritual care. Through discussions in the focus
groups, a new understanding and insight was developed. The spiritual care that the nurses provided included:
(1) integrating spiritual care into general care, described as ‘physical touch’ and ‘responsiveness and intuition’;
(2) spiritual care in terms of togetherness, described as 'being present’ and 'sensitivity in communication’; and
(3) spiritual care as providing meaningful activities for everyday life, described as 'facilitating activities’ and
'meeting the residents’ religious needs’.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates the need for nurses and care workers to discuss and reflect on how to
understand and describe spiritual care for people with dementia in practice. There is a need to develop and expand
the knowledge about how to teach carers to recognize resident’s spiritual needs and expressions of spirituality and to
establish a comprehensive view of spiritual care for people with dementia in nursing homes
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