Teaching spiritual care to nurses.

In this paper a number of issues related to the teaching of spiritual care to nurses are considered. The spiritual dimension influences health and well-being. Research shows that patients considered their spiritual needs of importance. Nurses held a similar view but felt the need for further education to help them give spiritual care. The nursing literature suggests that spiritual care is part of the nurse's role and guidelines for nurse education state that it should be taught to nurses. It is not clear, however, if or how the subject is taught or how effective such teaching is in helping nurses to give spiritual care. The ways in which spiritual care could be taught are explored.