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Spiritual Health: A Concept Analysis

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Abstract

Spiritual health has attracted a lot of attention in health-related and nursing sciences and numerous researches. Yet, this concept has remained complex and ambiguous, and there is no consensus in this regard. This ambiguity can be challenging for holistic nursing; therefore, clarification of the concept is required for development of nursing knowledge. The present study aimed to explore the concept of spiritual health in health-related and nursing literature. Walker and Avant (Strategies for theory construction in nursing, Appleton & Lange, Norwalk, 1995) concept analysis method was used in this study. The results were categorized as antecedents, attributes, and outcomes of spiritual health. The critical attributes extracted for spiritual health included transcendence, purposefulness and meaningfulness, faithfulness, harmonious interconnectedness, integrative power, multidimensionality, and holistic being. Besides, the antecedents of spiritual health included capability and potentiality for transcendence, and spiritual awareness. Finally, well-being and moral development were the outcomes of spiritual health. Spiritual health is one of the basic aspects of health and providing a clear theoretical definition can result in a common understanding of this concept for nurses. Clarifying this concept would also be useful for provision of spiritual care interventions and development of nursing theories.

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Acknowledgement

This manuscript was a part of the Ph.D. dissertation written by Azita Jaberi and financially supported by the Vice-Chancellor for Research Affairs of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (No. 93-7216). Hereby, the authors would like to thank Ms. A. Keivanshekouh at the Research Improvement Center of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences for improving the use of English in the manuscript.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Support was received from the Vice-Chancellor for Research Affairs of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Student Research Committee, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

    Azita Jaberi

  2. Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Zand Street, Namazee Sq., Shiraz, 71936-13119, Iran

    Marzieh Momennasab & Shahrzad Yektatalab

  3. Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Nursing Faculty, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Abbas Ebadi

  4. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Ali Cheraghi

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  1. Azita Jaberi
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Correspondence to Marzieh Momennasab.

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Author Dr. Momennasab has received research grants from Vice-Chancellor for Research Affairs of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Author Azita Jaberi is a member of Student Research Committee. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Jaberi, A., Momennasab, M., Yektatalab, S. et al. Spiritual Health: A Concept Analysis. J Relig Health 58, 1537–1560 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0379-z

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