Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Nursing

Advisor

Cynthia Fletcher

Abstract

Patients with mental and substance use disorders who are under the care of behavioral health nurses (BHNs) frequently present with spiritual needs. However, there is no information related to how these needs are addressed. It was relevant to explore the lived experiences of the BHNs as they attend to the spiritual needs of this patient population. Therefore, this qualitative study explored the meaning of spiritual care and the lived experiences for BHNs as they attend to the spiritual needs of patients with mental and substance use disorders. Using the descriptive phenomenological design, open-ended interview questions were administered via telephone and zoom-audio to eight BHNs. Watson’s theory of human caring informed the study and helped in exploring the lived experiences of the BHN participants. The data collected were analyzed using Colaizzi’s method of qualitative data analysis. The results of this study indicated that BHNs understood the importance of providing spiritual care; however, most of them experienced some challenges. Three main themes emerged from the data analysis: believing in a higher power, providing spiritual care, and experiencing challenges to providing spiritual care to this population. The study’s findings provide an understanding of how BHNs provided spiritual care to their patients and the challenges they encountered. This information can be used by healthcare practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and educators, especially within the behavioral health community, to develop policies and conduct further studies to understand and support the BHNs to provide spiritual care of patients with mental and substance use disorder with the potential to improve health outcomes.

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