Graduation Semester and Year
Spring 2025
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Dr. Deborah Behan
Second Advisor
Dr. Daisha Cipher
Third Advisor
Dr. Barbara St. Pierre Schneider
Abstract
ICU nurses are identified as a population of nurses with a high risk of experiencing psychological stress due to the nature of their job in the ICU (Lyndon, 2015; Welp et al., 2015). Psychological stress is detrimental to nurses' mental health and the quality of patient care.
According to Watson’s Transpersonal Human Caring Theory, the spiritual perception of the nurse influences the nurse’s spiritual care practice, which in turn affects their self-care and care provided by the nurse to patients (Watson, 2021)This research explored the ICU-Ns' perception of spirituality and its relationships with spiritual care practices and self-assessed competency in providing spiritual care using validated tools. It also assessed the ICU-Ns' perceived stress levels. The findings indicated that about 69.4% of the nurses in the study had moderate scores on the perception of spirituality, about 64.7% scored highly on the spiritual care practice scale, and about 56.3% had high scores on the spiritual care competency self-assessment. The findings also showed that 53.4% of the ICU nurses surveyed had moderate perceived stress, while 46% had high perceived stress levels.
The regression analysis revealed that nurses' spiritual care practice was a significant predictor of their perception of spirituality (β = -.40, p < .001), indicating that a lower score on spiritual care practices significantly predicted a higher score on spiritual perception. The result also showed moderate positive associations between perception of spirituality and spiritual care practice (r = 30, p < .001) and between perception of spirituality and spiritual care competency (r = 33, p < .001).
In conclusion, the association between perception of spirituality and spiritual care and between perception of spirituality and spiritual care competency supported the assumptions of Jean Watson’s transpersonal human caring theory.
Keywords
Spirituality, Spiritual Perception, Spiritual Care Competency, ICU Nurses, Intensive Care Unit Nurses
Disciplines
Critical Care Nursing | Other Nursing | Palliative Nursing | Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Ogidan, Adejoke Felicia, "PERCEPTION OF SPIRITUALITY BY INTENSIVE CARE UNIT NURSES" (2025). Nursing Dissertations. 131.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/nursing_dissertations/131
Included in
Critical Care Nursing Commons, Other Nursing Commons, Palliative Nursing Commons, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Commons
Comments
My acknowledgment goes to my former dissertation chair, Dr. Kathy Daniel, Dr. Deborah Behan, Dr. Barbara St. Pierre Schneider, and Dr. Daisha Cipher. Thank you for your tremendous support and guidance. I also appreciate the National League for Nursing Education Foundation scholarship, the Deerbrook Charitable Trust Gerontology Scholarship, the Kathryn M. Daniel Graduate Fellowship, and the Mary Lou Bond Graduate Fellowship for their generosity and financial support during the PhD education and throughout the dissertation research.