Integrating Spiritual Healthcare into Nursing Praxis: An Educational Intervention

Abstract

Roman Catholic pastoral and moral theology is the foundation for providing spiritual care within nursing praxis, resting on three pillars: God’s grace; the experience of suffering; and holiness. Project research resulted in an educational intervention proposed for nurses and healthcare workers that incorporates instruction in the grace of the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Specific teachings on suffering and holiness include the theological and cardinal virtues, the Beatitudes and culminates in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Health Care Services, as corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Interwoven within this project is the doctrine of human dignity expressed as Imago Dei, that all persons are made in the image and likeness of God and are therefore to be treated with dignity and respect. This project explores Church documents including Salvifici Doloris as a lens to view patient and caregiver suffering, with the nurses’ holy vocation vital in providing spiritual care through God’s grace, as seen in Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium.