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What Is Spirituality?

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Spirituality in Healthcare: Perspectives for Innovative Practice

Abstract

This introductory chapter explores contemporary understandings of spirituality and introduces the reader to spirituality and related concepts. It defines spirituality, spiritual distress and related concepts and describes associated key attributes. It gives the reader an understanding of the difficulties encountered with defining spirituality. The importance of spirituality is emphasised and expanded within a modern healthcare context. Practical resources, including websites and case studies, are provided to help the reader to explore their own spirituality and understand spiritual assessment and how to address the spiritual needs of others.

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Abbreviations

JCAHO:

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations

NANDA:

North American Nursing Diagnosis Association

RCN:

Royal College of Nursing

UTI:

Urinary tract infection

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Fiona Timmins and Silvia Caldeira for the opportunity to author a chapter for this exciting new book. I also wish to acknowledge James Collins for his support of everything I try to achieve in life (the big things and the little things).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ion Beam Applications (IBA), Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Elizabeth Weathers

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  1. Elizabeth Weathers
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Correspondence to Elizabeth Weathers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Fiona Timmins

  2. Institute of Health Sciences, Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal

    Sílvia Caldeira

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Weathers, E. (2019). What Is Spirituality?. In: Timmins, F., Caldeira, S. (eds) Spirituality in Healthcare: Perspectives for Innovative Practice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04420-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04420-6_1

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