Spirituality and attitude among critical care nurses towards DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order / Rosmawati Yusoff

Nurses in critical care tend to work in critical situation and environment whereby death and dying simultaneously occur Spirituality and spirituality care, as essential components of holistic nursing care, are increasing in attention nowadays while spirituality in association with critical care nursing practice are overlooked. In the critically and terminally ill patients’ implementation and decision of the pathway will lead to psychological and spiritual demands of the family that requires nurses’ support and involvement in providing care. Lack of caring attitude in providing palliative care; not performing duties accordingly and performing duties reluctantly found to be exist among healthcare team. Therefore aim of this study was to determine the relationship between spirituality and attitude among critical care nurses towards DNR (do not resuscitate) order in association with demographic characteristic. A quantitative, descriptive correlational and cross-sectional study was conducted on 202 critical care nurses working in the Intensive Care Units in the public hospitals in Penang. The tools of study include measures of attitude towards Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Scale (ATD) and Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS). Data were analysed through descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient and ANOVA in the statistical software SPSS, ver. 20. Thus, ANOVA test reveals that there is a significant difference in age (p=0.033) and working experience (p=0.012) related to ATD among critical care nurses. There is no significant difference in education level and experience in caring for chronically ill patients. There is no correlation between all the variables with spirituality among critical care nurses. The results of Pearson correlation reveal that there is a small, positive correlation between the two variables (r = 0.159, n = 192, p = <0.05). As conclusion, the most important concern in providing care in critical care unit is the quality of care, and the search for purpose and meaning in providing care, positivism can be effective in the quality of patient care.