J Korean Community Nurs.  2004 Mar;15(1):132-144.

Effect of Spiritual Nursing Intervention on Spiritual Well-being and Depression of Hospice Patients

• Kim JN
• Song MO

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to elucidate the effects of spiritual nursing intervention on the spiritual well-being and depression levels of hospice patients. METHOD: The data for this study were collected from 62 patients who were admitted to the hospice care unit from July 28, 2002 to October 31, 2002 in D city K hospital. Subjects were 31 members of the experimental group and 31 members of the control group. It was devised with a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The spiritual nursing intervention was given by using the therapeutic use of self, Scripture, prayer, Hymn and music, use of church community involvement and referrals to pastors according to the assessment of patients' spiritual needs for 3 weeks(total 12 times and 1 hour per each intervention). Sangsoon Choi (1990) and Jungho Kang(1996)'s spiritual well-being scale, which was modified from Palautzian and Ellison(1982)'s spiritual well-being scale, was used to investigate patients' spiritual well-being. To investigate the level of depression, OkHyun Song(1977)'s Depression Scale, which was modified from Zung(1965)'s Depression Inventory, was used. Data were analyzed by chi2-test, t-test, and repeated measures ANOVA with SPSS/Win 10.0 program.
RESULTS
1. The 1st hypothesis, 'total spiritual well being score in the experimental group, who received the spiritual nursing intervention, will be higher than the control group who did not receive the spiritual nursing intervention' was supported (F=6.28, p=0.015, Interaction: p=0.000). 2. The 1-1st sub-hypothesis, 'religious well-being score in the experimental group, who received the spiritual nursing intervention, will be higher than the control group who did not receive the spiritual nursing intervention' was supported(F=12.75, p=0.001, Interaction: p=0.000). 3. The 1-2nd sub-hypothesis, 'existential well-being score in the experimental group, who received the spiritual nursing intervention, will be higher than the control group who did not receive the spiritual nursing intervention' was supported(F=6.87, p=0.016, Interaction: p=0.000). 4. The 2nd hypothesis, 'depression level in the experimental group, who received the spiritual nursing intervention, will be lower than the control group who did not receive the spiritual nursing intervention' was supported (F=10.45, p=0.002, Interaction: p=0.000).
CONCLUSION
From the above results, spiritual nursing intervention was an effective program to improve the spiritual well-being state and decrease the depression levels of the hospice patients. In the future, with spiritual intervention, which the researcher developed, is applied in the nursing field, the hospice patients can have comprehensive well being including spiritual well being and die peacefully.

MeSH Terms

Depression*
Hospice Care
Hospices*
Humans
Music
Nursing*
Referral and Consultation
Religion