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The Relationship Between Religious Attitude, Compassion and Spiritual Care in Nursing Students: The Case of Türkiye

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Abstract

In the present descriptive study, we aimed to examine the relationship between the levels of religious attitude, compassion and spiritual care perception among nursing students. Data were obtained from 135 nursing students using the Socio-Demographic Diagnosis Form, the Ok-Religious Attitude Scale, the Compassion Scale, and the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis H test, the Spearman correlation test, and the Mann–Whitney U test. A positive correlation was found between the scores of the Ok-religious attitude scale and cognition sub-dimension, emotion sub-dimension, behavior sub-dimension, god sub-dimension and compassion scale and spiritual care-giving scale scores. Furthermore, we observed that some socio-demographic, and nursing profession and spiritual care characteristics of the students affected their religious attitudes, compassion and spiritual care perception. The sub-dimension scores of compassion and awareness of sharing among female students and the mindfulness scores of students with nuclear families were high. Our data suggest that the course contents for spiritual care, which is an integral part of holistic nursing care, should be included in the nursing curriculum. Moreover, we recommend that efforts be made to maintain a high level of compassion while considering the socio-demographics of the students and their opinions on the nursing profession. Finally, the data presented here has the potential to serve as a valuable resource for the development of novel approaches to the provision of spiritual care within nursing education programs.

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Funding

This study has not received a specific grant from any funding organization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences, Sakarya, Türkiye

    Canan Birimoglu Okuyan, Esma Akgul & Busra Gurcay

Authors
  1. Canan Birimoglu Okuyan
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  2. Esma Akgul
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  3. Busra Gurcay
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Contributions

CBO designed the study. CBO, EA and BG wrote, edited and revised the manuscript. All authors listed in the present paper have made significant contributions to the study and All authors read and approved the final version of the paper.

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Correspondence to Canan Birimoglu Okuyan.

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Birimoglu Okuyan, C., Akgul, E. & Gurcay, B. The Relationship Between Religious Attitude, Compassion and Spiritual Care in Nursing Students: The Case of Türkiye. J Relig Health 63, 1802–1817 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01969-3

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