Estudo de métodos mistos do conforto de estudantes de enfermagem para atender a pedidos de oração

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Prayer is an ancient and widespread spiritual practice in Brazil and around the world. Although the act of praying is a religious practice, when requested by the patient, it can be shown as a path to spiritual care and meeting spiritual needs. However, there may be discomfort related to this practice when it is considered by the health professional as an activity beyond care. This discomfort can interfere with the practice of spiritual care and the use of prayer as a welcoming strategy, in order to provoke non-acceptance of this request. Prayer in health care can be influenced by the individual experiences of those involved, training and religious or spiritual beliefs and by the fact that the professional feels comfortable or not in relation to this practice, as part of their role as a caregiver. OBJECTIVE: To explore the comfort of nursing students with patient-initiated prayer request in different simulated scenarios. METHODOLOGY: This is a mixed methods study carried out with 90 students enrolled in the undergraduate Nursing course at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in the second half of 2020. The students answered the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Nursing Student Comfort Questionnaire face to a Prayer Request by the patient (Prayer and the Registered Nurse-PRN) and to the instrument of Quality of Life/spirituality, religion and personal beliefs (WHOQOL-SRPB). RESULTS: There was a predominance of female students, white and brown, with a mean age of 25 years and who mostly recognize themselves as Catholics and Evangelical-Protestants. Most participants reported comfort and willingness to respond to the prayer request. There was no association between gender, period of the course and identification with the Catholic and Evangelical-Protestant religions and the students' comfort to pray with patients and their families. Previous experience in praying with a patient or family member, over 23 years of age, identification with a religion and higher levels of spirituality were associated with comfort in praying. From the qualitative data, it is identified that the fulfillment of the prayer request was related to the compatibility of beliefs between the student and the patient, to environments that guarantee privacy for the service of the request, to knowledge about spiritual care, to empathy and the ability to connect and meet the individual's needs. CONCLUSION: Comfort for spiritual care and answering the prayer request is related to the acceptance or non-acceptance of the prayer request made by the patients. Identifying the predisposing factors for decision-making about this request provides support so that professional training, research, policy and practice can strengthen what favors the fulfillment of the request and weaken what leads to non-compliance. In turn, for this reality to be transformed, it is necessary to implement public health and educational policies, in addition to support from health organizations and services focused on spiritual care.