The Nursing Staff's Understandings of Spiritual Care in an Oncology Clinic in 2003 and 2023: A Mixed Method Longitudinal Study

Aim(s): To explore the understandings of spiritual care among nursing staff at an Swedish oncology clinic, with a special focus on changes over time.

Design: Qualitative, longitudinal, descriptive design.

Methods: A questionnaire-based replication study conducted in 2003 (N = 68) and 2023 (N = 47), comparative and thematic analysis.

Results: The thematic analysis generated four main themes in 2023: (i) Relate to the whole person-spiritual care as an approach, (ii) enable an atmosphere of humanity and security around the patient-spiritual care as a nursing intervention, (iii) enable the patient to live out their spirituality or practice their religion-spiritual care that focuses on practical aspects directly linked to practising a religion and (iv) awareness of the importance of one's own approach to spiritual care-spiritual care that focuses on the personal qualities of the caregiver. Compared with 2003, there are many similarities but also some differences: the importance of one's own approach is more emphasised in 2023, and there is an increased awareness that nursing interventions can be different depending on who the patient is and who the caregiver is; spiritual care is more clearly characterised by an effort to relate to the whole person and the understanding of what can/should be included in the framework of spiritual care is broader.

Conclusion: The concept of 'spiritual care' can change over time and can depend on societal changes.

Implications for the profession and/or patient care: When studying understandings of the concept of 'spiritual care' in a nursing context or evaluating studies on the topic, the stability of the concept of 'spiritual care' over time should be accounted for.

Reporting method: When applicable: SRQR.

Patient or public contribution: None.