Relationship between Oncology Nurses’ Spiritual Wellbeing with Their Attitudes towards Spiritual Care Providing Based on Neuman System Model: Evidences from IRAN

Introduction: Oncology nurses should create a balance in their personal and professional life to provide holistic care to patients. The more the awareness of spirituality in oncology nurses develops, the more obviously it manifests itself in their attitudes toward spiritual care. This study aimed to assess the relationship between oncology nurses' spiritual wellbeing, and their attitudes toward spiritual care based on Neumann’s Systems Model. Methods: This descriptive correlational study tested the relationships of Neuman system-based model constructs, named oncology nurses antecedents, their spiritual wellbeing, and attitudes to spiritual care by using a causal model and path analysis. 130 oncology nurses from 12 Tehran hospitals completed the study questionnaires, having completed written informed consents. The study administration permission was approved by Urmia University of medical sciences ethical committee. The collected data were coded and entered to computer to be analyzed by SPSS 13. We used path analysis and multiple regressions for assessing the relationships among the variables of the hypothesized study model. Results: The model testing revealed, from four antecedents’ predictors’ variables, only age and spiritual wellbeing had a direct and meaningful relationship with oncology nurses’ attitudes towards spiritual care. The nurses’ antecedent and mediator variable, and spiritual wellbeing explained 32.5% of the variance in their attitudes towards spiritual care. Moreover, the nurses’ spiritual wellbeing was found to have a positive relationship with their attitude to spiritual care (β= 0.450). Conclusion: However, the study model and its constructs proved to be quite efficient in indicating oncology nurses’ attitudes to spiritual care-related factors, but it is not a comprehensive model and other studies are required for its empirical testing.