Palliative Care Nurse Specialists’ Perspectives on Spiritual Care at End of Life—A Scoping Review

The purpose of this scoping review was to explore and to summarize the published literature on palliative care nurse specialist’s perspectives of spiritual care at end of life. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist was followed. Searches were conducted in 6 online databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane, HSELibrary). Following a rigorous review process, 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted using a template analyzing aims, population, mean age, setting, year of study, methodology, and key findings. The findings were organized into 4 categories: communication, education and experience, religion, and nurse-patient relationship. The research demonstrates that specialist palliative care nurses perceive spiritual care as an important element of holistic care at end of life; however, these nurses also agree that spiritual care is lacking. This deficiency results from a lack of education in spirituality; experience of the nurse; the nurses’ own spiritual and religious beliefs and values, fears, and difficulties in communication; and the nurse-patient relationship. The findings demonstrate the necessity to increase the level of spiritual care education in nurse programs, educating nurses on the provision of spiritual care, and how to deal with conflicts in spiritual and religious beliefs.