Development of the Arabic Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale

Aims and objectives: This study develops a new instrument, the Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale, and assesses its psychometric properties in an Arab Muslim nurse sample. The Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale was developed to measure the frequency with which nurses provided aspects of spiritual care. Background: Most of the available spiritual care instruments were developed in the West and reflect a predominantly Christian tradition. A review of the literature on spiritual care in nursing revealed that no instrument exists for measuring spiritual care interventions provided by nurses to Arab Muslim patients. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive and correlational design. Methods: Following an extensive literature search, review by an expert panel and a pilot study which included patients' views regarding aspects of spiritual care provided by nurses, the final version of the Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale was tested in a convenience sample of 360 Jordanian Arab Muslim nurses. Correlational and factor analysis were used. Results: The internal consistency of the Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale was high, with α coefficient of 0·85. The exploratory factor analysis supported a two-factor structure for the Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale as hypothesised. A significant positive correlation between the Spiritual Care Intervention‐Provision Scale and religiosity was in the expected direction though small in magnitude. Conclusions: This study initiates the development of an instrument for the provision of spiritual care intervention by nurses that balances the religious and existential dimensions of spirituality. The Spiritual Care Intervention-Provision Scale exhibited acceptable evidence of internal consistency and validity among Jordanian Arab Muslim nurses. Further work was suggested to firmly establish all aspects of this new scale. Relevance to clinical practice: This culturally specific instrument contributes to the evaluation of the provision of spiritual care by Jordanian Muslim nurses to their patients, to guide them in providing a comprehensive and appropriate spiritual care interventions and to examine the effect of spiritual care on various aspects of patient's quality of life.