Background & Aim: People with spiritual health are capable and strong individuals who have a higher power of control and social support and can adjust themselves to spirituals tensions and make the necessary interventions to deal with problems and crises. With regard to the holistic care approach, which focuses on all aspects of human beings, the spiritual health of healthcare team members, especially nurses, plays a key role in holistic care provision. Meanwhile, favorable spiritual health must be established in students who want to provide care to patients in the future. The formation of spiritual beliefs in the education period is extremely important in the spiritual attitude of students towards the spiritual issues of patients. The more the spiritual health of students, the higher the ability of these individuals to provide spiritual care, which is a component of the holistic care of patients. One of the factors affecting the promotion of spiritual health is spiritual intelligence. In fact, students with high spiritual intelligence have an accurate understanding of various health dimensions (e.g., spiritual health) and can effectively extend health by transferring this comprehension to clinical environments. With this background in mind, this study aimed to determine the relationship between spiritual intelligence and spiritual health in nursing students.
Materials & Methods: This descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional study was performed on nursing students in Boroujen, Iran in 2017. In total, 178 subjects were selected by the census method from three disciplines of nursing, emergency and operating room, and all four academic years. The exclusion criteria were being an employee and passing spiritual education courses or participating in spiritual education workshops. Data were collected using a demographic characteristics questionnaire, a spiritual intelligence questionnaire, and a spiritual health questionnaire. The demographic characteristics questionnaire included variables such as age, gender, academic year, the field of study, marital status, place of residence, and GPA. In addition, the spiritual intelligence questionnaire was formerly implemented and confirmed by Badi et al. using the content analysis method. The questionnaire contains 42 items in four areas of (general thinking and doctrinal dimension, the ability to deal with and interact with problems, addressing moral issues, self-awareness, love, and interest). The items of the questionnaire were scored based on a five-point Likert scale from completely disagree (one score) to completely agree (five scores). The total score of the questionnaire is in the range of 42-210, where a low, moderate, and high score is in the range of 42-97, 98-153, and 154-210, respectively. Furthermore, the Palutzian & Ellison spiritual health questionnaire (1998) includes two spiritual health and existential health dimensions and 20 items scored based on a six-point Likert scale from completely disagree (one score) to completely agree (six scores). The total spiritual health score is in the range of 20-120, where a low, moderate, and high score of spiritual health is in the range of 20-40, 41-99, and 100-120, respectively. After one month, 178 out of 190 questionnaires distributed were collected, and data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using descriptive (frequency, frequency percentage, mean and standard deviation) and inferential (t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression model) statistics. It is notable that a P-value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: In this study, there was a significant positive relationship between spiritual intelligence and spiritual health in students (r=0.7, P≤0.001). Moreover, the regression model indicated that the spiritual intelligence of students predicted their spiritual health (r²=0.54; P≤0.001). The total mean score pf spiritual intelligence in students was reported to be 3.63±0.3, and the score of the general thinking and doctrinal dimension, the ability to deal with and interact with problems, self-awareness, love, and interest, and addressing moral issues was estimated at 0±4.5, 3.2±0.4, 3.7±0.4, and 4.0±3.6, respectively. In addition, the mean score of spiritual health and existential health was calculated at 4.5±0.8 and 4±0.5, respectively. However, the t-test results showed no significant association between spiritual intelligence and spiritual health with the variables of gender, place of residence, and marital status (P>0.05). Furthermore, no significant correlation was found between spiritual intelligence and spiritual health with the variables of the level of education and field of study (P>0.05).
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, students' spiritual health increased with increasing their spiritual intelligence and spiritual intelligence was recognized as a predictor variable to promote students' spiritual health. In other words, the spiritual intelligence of nursing students could play an effective role in the direction of their spiritual health in the future and the work environment. Therefore, students’ spiritual health can be increased by enhancing their spiritual intelligence. It is recommended that attention be paid to the dimensions of general thinking and doctrinal dimension, the ability to deal with and interact with problems, addressing moral issues, self-awareness, love, and interest through educational courses and periodic assessments by educational managers.