Spirituality and spiritual care provided by parish nurses

The high level of religions participation in the United States provides a v enue for parish nursing, a holistic nursing specialty that emphasizes the r elationship between spirituality and health. This descriptive study measure d two aspects of spirituality (spiritual perspective and spiritual well-bei ng) in a national sample of parish nurses and described variables related t o their practice. Furthermore, it qualitatively examined the provision of s piritual care to clients in this parish nurse sample. Parish nurses scored high in spiritual perspective and spiritual well-being and reported an emph asis on health promotion and education in their activities. Three views of spiritual interventions (ideal, general and specific) were reported. Types of spiritual interventions typically fell into one of four categories: reli gious, interactional, relation, and professional.