Nurse’s spiritual care competence in Ethiopia: A multicenter cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Many health care professionals emphasize that spirituality is an important factor in overall health. Although spiritual practices are vital to health, spirituality has received little emphasis in nursing. Hence, the study’s purpose has been to evaluate the current state of spiritual care competence and the factors that influence it among nurses in Southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: From July 1 to 20, 2021, nurses at five hospitals in southwest Ethiopia were enrolled in a facility-based cross-sectional study. The study subjects were chosen using a systematic random sampling. A self-administered questionnaire was undertaken to gather the data. Epi Data 3.1 was used to code the dataset, and SPSS version 25 was used for analysis. To identify factors associated with spiritual care competence, researchers performed bivariate and multivariable linear regression analyses. The significance level was set at p<0.05. RESULTS: Three hundred sixty-seven nurses attended in the study, giving a 91.06, percent rate of response. The mean spiritual care competence score among healthcare professionals was 3.14±0.74. Age (p<0.05), and training in spiritual care (p<0.05) were significantly associated with spiritual care competence. CONCLUSIONS: Spiritual care competence was moderate among the nurses. Spiritual care competence varies in accordance with a number of factors, including age, and training in spiritual care. Nurses are better suited to focus on the spiritual health of clients, which necessitates the provision of spiritual care competence training for nurses.