Nurses' training and teaching-learning strategies on the theme of spirituality

Objective  to investigate whether and how the theme of spirituality was addressed in the training of nurses working in palliative care.

Method  a qualitative study, carried out with 34 nurses from a cancer treatment hospital in Rio de Janeiro. Data was collected in 2019, through semi-structured interviews. Analysis was of the lexical type using the Alceste software.

Results  the nurses recognize the need to approach spirituality in care, but the gaps or insufficiency of approach in training hinder its application in the practice. To bridge these gaps, strategies are applied in permanent education in the services.

Conclusion and implications for the practice  the lack of formal and technical preparation for approaching and offering care to the patients' spiritual dimension compromises the performance of comprehensive care. Permanent education proved to be the only possibility to prepare nurses to care for such dimension. It reveals the importance of addressing spirituality and the impacts on health and care, especially in the field of palliative care, which makes it transversal and necessary in professional training.

Keywords:
Nursing; Spirituality; Education in Nursing; Continuing Education; Nursing Care