The level of spiritual care competence of Polish nurses and the psychometric properties of the spiritual care competence scale (SCCS)

BACKGROUND: Providing effective spiritual nursing care requires development of professional competence which, when regularly evaluated, allows one to direct undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education in order to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes of nurses in the scope of spiritual care. AIM: The aim of this study was to analyse the level of spiritual competence of professionally active nurses in Poland and, additionally, to analyse the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS). METHODS: A cross-sectional study among Polish nurses (n = 343) was performed in accordance with the STrengthening the Reporting of OBservational studies in Epidemiology guidelines. RESULTS: An exploratory factor analysis identified five factors with 27 items explaining a total variance of 64.75%. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the subscales ranged from 0.70 for ‘Attitude toward the patient’s spirituality’ to 0.92 for ‘Professionalisation and improving the quality of spiritual care’. Nurses reported a high level of spiritual competence (104.39 points) with better results in ‘Attitude toward the patient’s spirituality’ and ‘Communication, personal support and patient counselling’ than in the ‘Assessment and implementation of spiritual care’, ‘Professionalisation and improving the quality of spiritual care’, and ‘Referral, consultation and spiritual care’. Significant correlation was found between nurses’ age, job seniority and spiritual competence, and between religiosity and spiritual competence. CONCLUSIONS: The study showed satisfactory psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale, confirming its potential to measure the level of spiritual competence of nurses, both in education and research processes. SCCS-PL revealed five-factor structure with good internal consistency. The findings highlight the importance of providing professional education in respect of spiritual nursing care, especially in its practical dimension regarding skills development in which nurses obtained lower scores.