EDUCATION RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION ABSTRACTS
Please note: All posters will be displayed in
Salons 10-12.
FRIDAY, 10:15-11:00 AM
Sandor MK, Sierpina VS*, Vanderpool HV, Owen SV.
Spirituality and clinical care: exploring developmental
changes in nursing and medical students.
University of Texas Medical Branch vssierpi@utmb.edu
*Presenting author
PURPOSE: This study identifies and assesses
changes in spiritual experiences and the perceived importance of spiritual
issues in nursing and medical students participating in a Spirituality
and Clinical Care course. Students were invited to participate in the
study by completing the Spiritual Experience Index-Revised (SEI-R),
which measures Spiritual Openness, Spiritual Support and levels of Spiritual
Maturity and the Spiritual Importance (SI) scales to assess students'
understanding of the importance of spiritual issues related to the Spirituality
and Clinical Care course objectives. Differences from pretest to posttest
by sex and by discipline (medicine vs. nursing) and changes in spiritual
maturity are assessed and analyzed.
RESULTS: Data analyses explored discipline differences,
sex differences, and changes in levels of spiritual maturity one year
after the two week course. Students (N = 416) participating in the course
reflected a significant increase in perceived importance of spirituality
in practice, with females of both disciplines showing greater increases
than males and students in nursing showing greater increases than students
in medicine. Female students were more trusting than male students in
spiritual measures for support. An interesting finding revealed both
male and female students evidenced declines in spiritual openness from
pretest to posttest with males less open than females and medical students
declining more sharply than nursing students. Finally, changes in the
levels of spiritual maturity of the students were measured. Students
in contrasting developmental groups, (n = 127) regressed to more dogmatic
and underdeveloped levels of spiritual maturity from pretest to posttest.
CONCLUSIONS: Maintenance or advancement of spiritual
development was the expected outcome as students began to develop the
"art" of their practice. It was unexpected that students would regress
to a more dogmatic or underdeveloped spiritual level. Several explanations
for these findings are explored.
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