THE MEANING OF SPIRITUALITY - A LITERATURE-REVIEW

This paper presents a literature review in relation to the meaning of spirituality. It is proposed that meeting the spiritual needs of patie nts is a fundamental part of providing holistic nursing care, but that the assessment and meeting of those needs is impeded by inadequate de finitions and conceptual frameworks. It should not be assumed that spi rituality is either synonymous, or coterminous, with religion, and it is suggested that to adopt this restrictive view is unhelpful in the p rovision of individualized care. Reflection on the literature reveals that the self, others and 'God' provide the key elements within a defi nition of spirituality, and that other emerging themes namely meaning, hope, relatedness/connectedness, beliefs/belief systems and expressio ns of spirituality, can be articulated in the context of those three k ey elements. In particular, it is proposed that the nature of 'God' ma y take many forms and, essentially, is whatever an individual takes to be of highest value in his/her life, It is suggested that the themes emerging from the literature can be utilized as a framework to give pr actitioners and researchers a direction for future exploration of the concept of spirituality.