Enhancing Nurses’ Competencies in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care (EPICC)

Author: Wilfred McSherry (University of Staffordshire, England)

Dr Linda Ross (University of South Wales, Wales)

Dr. Tove Giske (VID Specialist University, Bergen, Norway)

Dr. Rene van Leeuwen (Viaa Christian University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, The Netherlands)

Dr. Tormod Kleiven (formerly Diakonova University College, now VID Specialized University, Oslo, Norway)

The late Professor Donia Baldacchino

Dr. Josephine Attard (University of Malta)

The mantra of patient-centred, dignified and compassionate care has turn out to be very distinguished in health and social care. This is primarily as a result of the big variety of cases reporting violations of dignity, quality and standards of care. There is little doubt that patient-centered care must bear in mind all dimensions of an individual (physical, psychological, social and spiritual). However, although the concepts of spirituality and spiritual care have received considerable attention and debate within the international health care literature, it remains to be a neglected dimension of care. The reasons for this may increasingly be a scarcity of clarity about its meaning, fear of accusations of proselytism and inadequate educational preparation.

Many regulatory and academic bodies for nurses and midwives require that, on the time of registration, nurses and midwives are capable of incorporate the non-public, religious and spiritual beliefs of their clients as a part of holistic, person-centred care. However, it’s less clear how students acquire these skills. Our research so far shows that the teaching that student nurses and midwives receive is significant of their knowledge of spiritual/person-centred care, but there may be great inconsistency in the best way this topic is addressed in nurse teaching programs. across Europe (Ross et al., 2014, 2016). Despite these inconsistencies, there are a lot of innovations in teaching spiritual and person-centered care that should be captured, shared, and leveraged to make sure nursing and midwifery students are prepared to fulfill the holistic needs of the people they take care of. This will be certain that future nursing and midwifery staff are prepared to fulfill a few of the global challenges affecting international nursing, midwifery and health care.

To address inconsistencies identified within the preparation of pre-registration nurses and midwives to offer spiritual care, six international partners (described above) developed the “Enhancing nurses’ competence in providing spiritual care through innovative education and compassionate care” (EPICC) project. The 33-month EPICC project is funded by a grant agreement under the Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership. Number: 2016-1-UK01-KA203-024467

The goal of the project is:

• Establish a sustainable network and partnerships where nursing and midwifery educators can share experiences, research and resources related to spiritual care to counterpoint their teaching
• To enable nursing and midwifery educators to amass latest knowledge/skills in learning and teaching the non-public, religious and spiritual features of person-centred care
• A review of how personal, religious and spiritual features of care are currently taken into consideration in a sample of upper education institutions from across Europe
• Analyze current practice by identifying aspects and processes that enable or hinder the teaching of those areas in nursing curricula
• Develop and test an modern, dynamic and versatile spiritual care matrix for nurse education based on international best practice and evidence that will be adopted by higher education institutions (HEIs) across Europe
• Identify strategies and develop resources to tell skilled regulators and key stakeholders
• Make sure the project is informed by students and patients/public representatives.

The project began at Staffordshire University in April 2017 (see link: http://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/eu-project-champions-the-spiritual-care-of-patients-tcm4293731.jsp) and a really successful teaching and research event took place in Zwolle, the Netherlands in October/November 2017. In addition to the six partners, the EPICC project currently involves 23 nursing and midwifery teachers from 16 European countries: Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Denmark, Finland, Germany , Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Great Britain and Ukraine. EPICC can provide wealthy insight into current educational practice, enable the sharing of best practice and develop a unified approach to learn how to incorporate personal, religious and spiritual beliefs into nursing and midwifery curricula by generating guidance.

If you desire to more information concerning the EPICC project, please contact Professor Wilfred McSherry, Project Manager (W.McSherry@staffs.ac.uk) or Adam Boughey, EPICC Project Manager (Adam.Boughey@staffs.ac.uk)

Ross L, Giske T, van Leeuwen R, Baldacchino D, McSherry W, Narayanasamy A, Jarvis P, Schep-Akkerman A. (2016) Factors contributing to student nurse/midwifery students’ perceived competence in spiritual care. Nurse Education Today, 36, 445-451.

Ross L, van Leeuwen R, Baldacchino D, Giske T, McSherry W, Narayanasamy A, Downes C, Jarvis P, Schep-Akkerman A. (2014) Student nurse perceptions of spirituality and competence in providing spiritual care: a European pilot study. Nurse Education Today, 34(5), 697-702

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