• Elizabeth Johnston Taylor.
• School of Nursing, Loma Linda University, West Hall, 11262 Campus Street, Loma Linda, California 92350, USA. ejtaylor@llu.edu
• Int J Palliat Nurs. 2013 Apr 1;19(4):178-85.

AimTo measure how comfortable hospice nurses in New Zealand are in conducting spiritual assessment and explore potentially associated factors.DesignCross-sectional, mixed-methods, descriptive study.Sample And SettingSixty hospice nurses from three New Zealand hospices.MethodsAn investigator-designed questionnaire measured respondents' comfort with asking patients spiritual assessment questions proposed for use in the health-care literature. Other items assessed personal and work-related factors. Open questions generated data about how these nurses assess spirituality.The data was analysed using measures of central tendency, binomial non-parametric tests, and content analysis.FindingsThese nurses were generally comfortable with proposed spiritual assessment questions and perceived spiritual assessment to be important. Personal factors including age, years in nursing, religiosity, and spirituality were not related to this comfort; however, training was associated with comfort.ConclusionThese findings underscore the importance of training and show how nurses can be comfortable with and capable of assessing patient spirituality.

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