Exploring the contribution of the EPICC Spiritual Care Competency Self-Assessment Tool in a Dutch nursing education program

oktober 2024–oktober 2026

Veiledere

Primary supervisor: Professor Tove Giske, VID University, Bergen, Norway

Second Supervisor: Dr. Bart Cusveller, Viaa University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, the Netherlands.

Project description

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on spirituality and spiritual care within the healthcare sector, with a corresponding increase in research activity in this area. The significance of spirituality is particularly evident in circumstances where individuals are experiencing distress, questioning their circumstances with regard to illness and health, seeking care and treatment, or dealing with life and death issues. Health care workers report difficulties in understanding what spirituality is because of its close association with religion.

Internationally, spirituality and spiritual care provision is regarded as standard for 'good healthcare practice' by many healthcare practitioners, e.g. nurses, doctors, social workers, chaplains, psychologists and others. Professional standards acknowledge the significance of whole person-centered care approaches, respecting the individuality and uniqueness of the patient. Given the impact spirituality has on health, it is essential that every worker in healthcare supports the spiritual health of patients.

It is essential that nurses possess and demonstrate integrated knowledge, skills and attitudes in order to guarantee safe and ethical practice, thereby enabling patients to progress from spiritual distress to spiritual well-being. As with all professional competencies, nurses must be adequately prepared for their role and responsibilities during their studies. However, research findings indicate that spiritual education is not adequately integrated into healthcare curricula. Research findings revealed that nurses still feel inadequately prepared to provide spiritual care. There is still scope to explore the contribution that educational resources, tools and strategies can make to the development of nurses' and other healthcare professionals' competencies in spiritual care.

The PhD-project is the result of an international between VID in Norway and Viaa Christian University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands collaboration in the fields of nursing and education. The international collaboration commenced over a decade ago and had since 2016 facilitated within the EPICC Network. This was established as a result of the European EPICC project, during which an EPICC Spiritual Care Education Standard was developed with the objective of enhancing nurses’ and midwives’ competence in providing spiritual care through innovative education and compassionate care. As a follow- up the Spiritual Care, Education and Practice Development (SEP)- project developed the EPICC Spiritual Care Competency Self-Assessment Tool (EPICC Tool) for nursing and midwifery students. This EPICC Tool allows students to discuss and evaluate their spiritual care competencies.

The knowledge gap in the PhD-project is that it is not yet known what the structural implementation of tools in nursing curricula contributes to the development of spiritual care competence in nursing students. This PhD-project ‘Exploring the contribution of the EPICC Spiritual Care Competency Self-Assessment Tool (EPICC Tool) in a Dutch nursing education program’ consist of three studies. The main objective is to explore how the implementation of the EPICC Tool in a nursing education contributes to the development of spiritual care competencies in nursing students.

Background

Master in Health Sciences and Nurse

Research group

Spiritual care in nursing and health professions (SPIRCARE) in Bergen, Norway

Spirituality in Healthcare [Zorg en Zingeving] in Zwolle, the Netherlands

Institution

Viaa Christian University of Applied Sciences, Zwolle, the Netherlands