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Spirituality is an integral part of a persons wholeness and therefore has an effect on and plays an important role in health and illness. Nurses are required by national and international nursing bodies as well as hospital accreditation agencies, to identify patients spiritual needs and intervene by integrating spiritual care into their nursing care. However, to date, no nursing studies have described Tanzanian nurses experiences of spirituality and spiritual care. The qualitative method of interpretive description was used. A purposive sample of fifteen registered nurses who were engaged in direct clinical practice at one of the private not-for-profit hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania was drawn. In-depth interviews using open-ended questions were carried out, tape-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The data collection and analysis occurred concurrently. The transcripts were coded using inductive analysis. Themes related to spirituality and spiritual care that emerged from data were: meaning of spirituality, meaning of spiritual care, recognition of spiritual needs, interventions to respond to spiritual needs, challenges addressing spiritual care, and factors positively influencing the provision of spiritual care. Several recommendations for enhancing spiritual caregiving practices were given by participants. The findings from this study offer a basis for assessment, planning, and intervention strategies that nurses can apply in integrating spiritual care in clinical practice.

In recent years nursing literature has featured a proliferation of discourse pertaining to many aspects of spirituality in nursing. However, there has been a dearth of research related to nurses' personal spirituality and whether or not it helps to shape their nursing practice. This qualitative study explored how spirituality shapes the practice of community health nurses who work in First Nations communities in British Columbia (B.C.). The twelve participants, purposefully sampled, all had at least 2 years experience working in community health in First Nations communities. Using an interpretive descriptive research design, participants were interviewed to explore their lived experiences of spirituality relative to their nursing practice. The analysis of the interview data identified that nurses' spirituality is essential to their practice in terms of "providing care spiritually" versus "providing spiritual care" interventions to their patients as typically depicted in the nursing literature. Moreover, their spirituality is discussed as a pervasive nursing ethic and motivation for patient care that manifests as respect, connectedness, love, acceptance, caring, hope, endurance and compassion towards patients. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest the integration of community health nurses' spirituality into their nursing practice may contribute to the wider aim of health and healing within First Nations communities. Four major themes are presented as research findings: (a) spirituality influences nurses' ability to remain self aware, open-minded and accepting in relation to others; (b) spirituality as a reflexive approach to grounding one's own nursing practice; (c) spiritual awareness fosters appreciation of the need for community healing, and finally (d) self-reflection and providing care spiritually as a route to reciprocal interaction. Also, it was identified that nurses' spirituality nurtures their reflexivity and helps them to: (a) foster culturally safe relationships with patients, (b) realize how colonial issues influence health status in First Nations patients, (c) recognize that cumulative work stress and burn out can be reduced and prevented through relational spiritual practices, and (d) work through their own values, beliefs and prejudices in order to practice nursing based on a model of reciprocal interaction, and culturally safe approaches.

This thesis offers an interpretation of the life and work of Karl Rahner with the specific purpose of introducing and recommending him as an important source for contemporary initiatives in spiritual formation. The guiding notion through which this thesis is developed is that of a perceived ‘spirituality of silence’. This notion is explored and developed with reference to Rahner’s biography, his Ignatian spiritual roots, his first and most widely read book of prayers and his theologies of mystery, word and sacrament. Finally, the thesis facilitates an extended discussion between the dimensions of ‘spirituality of silence in Rahner’ and the contemporary spirituality of Western culture and the place and role of the church. An extended version of this summary is offered in the introductory section of the thesis proper.

This study sets out to explore and describe the life experience of spirituality within the context of daily life. What is that through daily interaction of their lives, persons interviewed as part of this research experienced as a sense of meaning and wholeness, and which these persons identify and value as contributing to their sense of living spiritually? Thus daily life informed by these kinds of so-called spiritual engagements and practices may provide a way of discovering or recovering the sacred in ordinary situations and activities of their lives. Such engagements and practices may help to strengthen a consciousness that nurtures a spirituality of human development. / Spirtuality in this sense refers to the practices and learning through which individuals and societies attempt to move beyond self-centred positions of power and control, to share experiences that articulate care of the self, and of seeking meaning, wisdom, virtue, joy and harmony in, and with life. To explore the significant human experience of spirituality in daily life, the heuristic methodology developed by Clark Moustakas (1990) was employed. This approach utilizes the concepts and processes of identifying with the focus of the inquiry, self dialogue, tacit knowing, intuition, indwelling, focusing, and the internal frame of reference. The six phases of heuristic research are initial engagement, immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis. Seventeen participants (co-researchers) were selected from a small group of Western Australian volunteers who claimed to have experienced the topic of investigation. They were interviewed informally and conversationally with the open- ended question, “Describe as fully as possible as possible your experience of spirituality in daily life”. These interviews were analysed, yielding eleven extended descriptions of the experience, three of which make up the individual depictions, a composite depiction of the experience, two exemplary portraits of the experience, and a creative synthesis of the experience. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

This thesis explores thirty-two individuals?? experiences of involvement in Siddha Yoga. Such groups have often been labelled as cults and accused of ??brainwashing?? their followers. The conceptualisation of affiliation as brainwashing has been influential within the helping professions, including psychology, counselling and social work. However, this conceptualisation is not supported by empirical research on cults, or what have become known as New Religious Movements (NRMs). The research problem which this thesis addresses therefore is: ??If a brainwashing model of affiliation does not give an adequate explanation for cult/NRM involvement how else might it be understood??? A primary objective of this study was to inform the helping professions, in particular social work. A secondary objective was to add to knowledge about Siddha Yoga Practice in Australia, which no other study had addressed, and thereby to add to the growing understanding of NRMs in Australia. The study applied a qualitative research framework, informed by grounded theory, ethnography and phenomenology and used a purposive sampling technique. Materials were collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant observations and field notes, and analysed with the assistance of NVivo data analysis computer software. This study found that the conceptualisation of affiliation as brainwashing fails to account for the variety of individuals?? experiences of involvement in Siddha Yoga. Moreover, the findings highlight that involvement in regard to attraction, affiliation and disenchantment is not helpfully understood by adopting a ??brainwashing?? model and could be better understood through the lens of the sociology of religion, including studies of the experiences of those in mainstream religions. One implication of the findings for social work and other helping professions is that existing approaches to interpersonal helping could be used with individuals who seek assistance after leaving a NRM. For social work, this thesis also adds to the growing knowledge of the diverse religious orientations in the wider community. Such knowledge can enhance social work education, practice and theory in relation to social work??s diverse client population.

This thesis focuses on the conceptualisation and expression of spiritual intelligence among ?traditional? Christians, and pursuers of New Age and popular individualistic spirituality. A secondary focus is the association between these and subjective well-being. A series of four studies - three quantitative and one qualitative -were conducted, and three new instruments were developed: the Spiritual and Religious Dimensions Scale (a measure of spiritual orientation), the Spiritual Intelligence Scale, and the Personal Well-being Index. Using these instruments and semi-structured interview questions, the identification of unique patterns in the conceptualisation and expression of religion/spirituality and spiritual intelligence by traditional Christians and followers of New Age/individualistic spirituality was made possible. Different patterns of association with various aspects of well-being among the two forms of spiritual intelligence were also identified. / thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Nazarene Theological Seminary, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-157).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Nazarene Theological Seminary, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [67-69]).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Feb. 8, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-184).