McSherry Wilfred, Cash Keith
School of Nursing, Social Work, and Applied Health Studies, The University of Hull, Milner Hall Room M208, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
Int J Nurs Stud. 2004 Feb;41(2):151-61. doi: 10.1016/s0020-7489(03)00114-7.
This paper explores the relationships that exist between the language used to describe spirituality within nursing and the appropriateness of constructing a universal definition acceptable to all individuals. 'Spirituality' is a term that is increasingly used in nursing but there may be problems about exactly what the term means and how it is interpreted and understood by both nurses and patients.
The aim of the paper is to explore some of the commonly cited definitions to establish if the concept of spirituality could be termed 'universal'.
This paper presents a discussion, based upon a literature review, of the nursing and health care databases, combined with manual searches. The review demonstrates how the term spirituality is being constructed within nursing suggesting that there are numerous definitions each with several layers of meaning.
From the review the authors have developed 'a spiritual taxonomy' that may explain and accommodate the different layers of meaning found within nursing and health care definitions. At the extreme left there is a spirituality based on religious and theist ideals, while at the extreme right there is a spirituality based upon secular, humanistic, existential elements. A middle way is explained containing elements from both the left and right but not as fundamental or radical.
The authors argue that because there are so many definitions with different layers of meanings, spirituality can imply different things depending upon an individual's personal interpretation or worldview. The results of the review suggest nursing is constructing a 'blanket' definition of spirituality, which has a broad, almost inexhaustible set of defining characteristics. If this approach continues then there is a danger that the word may become so broad in meaning that it loses any real significance.
本文探讨了护理领域中用于描述灵性的语言与构建一个所有人都能接受的通用定义的适宜性之间存在的关系。“灵性”一词在护理中使用得越来越频繁，但该词的确切含义以及护士和患者如何对其进行解释和理解可能存在问题。
本文旨在探究一些经常被引用的定义，以确定灵性的概念是否可以被称为“通用”。
本文基于对护理和医疗保健数据库的文献综述，并结合人工检索进行讨论。该综述展示了灵性一词在护理领域是如何构建的，表明存在众多定义，每个定义都有几层含义。
通过综述，作者们开发了一种“灵性分类法”，它可以解释并涵盖护理和医疗保健定义中发现的不同层次的含义。最左边是基于宗教和有神论理想的灵性，而最右边是基于世俗、人文、存在主义元素的灵性。还解释了一种中间道路，它包含了左右两边的元素，但没有那么基本或激进。
作者们认为，由于有如此多具有不同层次含义的定义，灵性可能因个人的个人解读或世界观而意味着不同的事物。综述结果表明，护理正在构建一个灵性的“笼统”定义，它具有广泛的、几乎无穷无尽的定义特征集。如果这种方法继续下去，那么这个词可能会在意义上变得如此宽泛，以至于失去任何实际意义。
