ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS REGARDING SPIRITUAL CARE - A SURVEY OF CANCER NURSES

Why nurses neglect spiritual care issues remains unclear. Therefore, a questionnaire designed to assess oncology nurse clinicians' attitudes and beliefs about spiritual care was mailed to a stratified, random s ample of 700 Oncology Nursing Society members within the United States . Data from the 181 respondents were analyzed using descriptive and mu ltivariate statistics (for quantitative items) and content analysis (f or essay questions). Analysis of data revealed both a positive regard for spiritual care within nursing, and relationships between beliefs a nd attitudes about spiritual care and self-reported spirituality, reli giosity, ethnicity, work role, and education. Recommendations are for inclusion of theoretical and practical aspects of spiritual care in nu rsing education and for further investigation of nurses' attitudes and beliefs regarding spiritual care.