Given the abstract nature of spirituality, the
teaching of spiritual nursing care is more
complex than teaching the concrete dimensions
of care. However, if we believe that nurses are
professionally and ethically responsible for
providing spiritual care (Wright 1998), nursing
education also has a responsibility to address
human spirituality and spiritual care-giving.
One of the challenges of integrating spirituality
and spiritual care-giving into the nursing
curriculum has been the evolving
understanding of spirituality. Spirituality has
often been equated with religion (Emblen
1992); however, current concepts of spirituality
recognize that it is broader than religion and
inherent in all humans (Meraviglia 1999). In
discussing the spiritual aspects of persons,
Willard states `Spiritual is not just something
we ought to be. It is something we are and
cannot escape, regardless of how we may think
or feel about it' (1998, p. 79).
Several concept analyses of spirituality have
been published in the nursing literature.