Chapter III: Spirituality in Nursing in Higher Education (Dissertation Sample)

SPRITUALITY IN NURSING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
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Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Chapter III: Spirituality in Nursing in Higher Education PAGEREF _Toc468897935 \h 3Introduction and Overview PAGEREF _Toc468897936 \h 3Research sample PAGEREF _Toc468897937 \h 5Target Population PAGEREF _Toc468897938 \h 5Sampling Method PAGEREF _Toc468897939 \h 6Sample Size PAGEREF _Toc468897940 \h 7Participants PAGEREF _Toc468897941 \h 8Overview of the Information Needed PAGEREF _Toc468897942 \h 8Research Design PAGEREF _Toc468897943 \h 9Data Collection methods PAGEREF _Toc468897944 \h 12Data Analysis Procedures PAGEREF _Toc468897945 \h 15Ethical Considerations PAGEREF _Toc468897946 \h 17Issues of Trust Worthiness PAGEREF _Toc468897947 \h 18Limitations of the Research Design PAGEREF _Toc468897948 \h 20Chapter Summary PAGEREF _Toc468897949 \h 22References PAGEREF _Toc468897950 \h 24
Chapter III: Spirituality in Nursing in Higher Education
Introduction and Overview
Having nurses who address the spiritual needs of their clients has remained to be a critical issue in the contemporary holistic nursing practice where the nurses are required to meet the entire needs of the patients. However, this has proven to be a challenge in the present world owing to the fact that the nursing education does not emphasize on equipping the nursing students with the relevant spiritual skills required to take care of the patients. There is little evidence in the contemporary literature that explores the specific client's spiritual needs which must be addressed by the nursing students and the entire nursing curriculum from all over the globe. The gap has, therefore, lead to the little focus created by the nursing pedagogy making scholars and the tutors to create more focus on the physical and the body restoration of the patients. However, some of the licensed nurses believe that meeting both the physiological and the psychological needs of a patient is for sure one of the best practices that help in meeting a client's spirituality needs. This is a similar notion that views spiritual care for the patients to be a requirement of nursing practice but not a requirement due to the impact it leaves on the patients. Usually, patients who have had their spiritual needs well taken care of, always improve significantly compared to the patients whose spiritual needs have not be considered in the treatment process.
In that respect, therefore, there is the need to have the nursing curriculum from all over the globe to be revised and have its goals include spiritual care. As explained by Watson & Hills (2011), a deep understanding of how nursing students are prepared to meet the needs of patients spiritually is one of the ways through which tutors and various nursing program faculties can effectively know the missing methods that can be incorporated into the nursing pedagogy. Incorporation of the missing strategies is, therefore, a critical step that ensures the contemporary teaching methods for the nursing students addresses the specific needs of individual patients. Primarily, the thin line that exists between spirituality and religion is usually a contributing factor in the definition of spiritual clinical care, and by an understanding of the teaching strategies, nurses shall remain equipped to connect the challenges and offer a holistic nursing practice to the patients.
In this particular study, the main aim of the study was to make a discovery on how the entire nursing fraternity both the students and institutions perceive their curriculum’s contribution in offering a holistic nursing practice that does not offer, the physical treatment alone. The disconnect existing in the current nursing practice have always been associated with the poor curriculum that has failed to incorporate spiritual teaching into the nursing practice. Importantly, some institutions around the globe have however recognized the role spiritual care does to the nursing practice and as result, have incorporated the use of such strategies as the Watson’s theory of human caring. Basically, this theory focuses on nursing practices which are based on the values, ethics, philosophy and knowledge related to human caringCITATION Wat12 \l 1033 (Eichelberger, 2011). In a way, this theory creates a focus for the spiritual perspective of a patient caring for the nurses. It provides them with the best means possible of managing the needs of a patient from the perspective of human ethics.
Research Questions
Below are two most basic and fundamental questions that will guide this study.
1 How does the current nursing curriculum prepare the nursing students to address and meet the spiritual needs of their clients?
2 How does the current nursing curriculum contribute to the present nursing pedagogy around the globe?
While these were the most fundamental questions forming the starting point of the study, a qualitative form of research was used by implementing both individual and the semi-focused group interviews. Critically, qualitative research methods of data collection were significantly used in this study due to its ability to create a relationship in matters by answering the most critical questions of why?. Having a complete understanding of the relationship that the nursing curriculum has with the current disconnect in spiritual teaching for the student nursing is important and it can be best achieved through personal interviews and semi-structured interviews.
Research sample
Target Population
Taylor, Kermode, & Roberts (2006) defines target population as the whole group of people in which a researcher may want to generalize their findings of a particular study. It is, however, different from the selected target group which is used to mean the particular group that was used by the researcher to generalize findings. In the sample study that was conducted by this study, the target group was made up of nursing students at the Ohio University. The study population that shall partake the process of answering interview questions will be nursing students who shall have completed at least six clinical courses at the Ohio University and have a better understanding of the specific role played by the nursing education in the duties of a nurse. In the study will be both full-time and part-time tutors in the faculty who teach either the theory or the clinical courses at the institution. Only a section of the intended population shall be taken to be part of the process so as to help the researcher understand the requirements of the study better.
As explained by Martin (2008), purposeful selection of the target group to participate in a sample study like the selection of the nursing students based on their level of education plays such a critical role in helping the researcher to understand the specific problem from the research questions in use. In addition to that, selecting participants based on their level of experience like having specific tutors from the faculty, as well plays a critical role in providing the researcher with accurate information as required in the research questions CITATION Bou16 \l 1033 (Bougie & Sekaran, 2016).
Sampling Method
To achieve the purpose of the study at the sample level, the maximum variation sampling was used. Primarily, Beck & Polit (2010) describes the method as one that entails deliberate selection of cases with wide interest by the researcher. In that respect, this particular study was made up of the female students of the senior year of study who shall have completed both theoretical and the clinical parts of the study. Their educational level as part of the researcher's interests played a critical role in posing the varied level of experience which was a requisite for the study. Basically, this is a strategy that is viewed by Beck & Polit (2010), to have supported the maximum variation sample’s use in the study.
Additionally, critical selection of the participants as have been done in the study ensures that the type of individual taken for the study has been fully represented withing the sampling frame. In the same way, Beck & Polit (2010) explains that purposeful selection of the participants ensures that the researchers gain a full understanding of the issues as they should be represented by the study questions. in this research, therefore, the qualitative personal interviews will be conducted in a manner that the selected participants shall engage in a talk with the researcher, articulate issues, reflect on the matters relating to spirituality in nursing curriculum and willingly explains how spirituality affects nursing as a career. The selected participants will also explain the role re-introduction of spirituality into the nursing curriculum will play in supporting holistic nursing practices, both from their personal experience perspective and the curriculum perspective.
However, all these shall be conducted under informed consent of the participants as explained by Emanuel (2008) who believes that research participants must be informed of the subject of the study, the purpose of the study , the study procedure and some of the potential risks that might be involved. In addition to that, it is within the ethical boundaries to have the participants informed of the benefits of participating in such form of studies, existing alternative procedures, the rights they have in the study such as the right of refusal to respond to some research questions. critically, it is imperative for the researchers to understand that they must inform the participants of the research results and the generalization made from research so as to make the entire process ethical CITATION Bec10 \l 1033 (Beck & Polit, 2010). In that...