Teaching spiritual care to nurses: an alternative approach.

This paper presents an approach to teaching spiritual care that is underpinned by a traditional philosophy of care as agape. In this approach spiritual care is considered a fundamental character of care, not a self-conscious addition. The caring function of the nurse is qualitatively differentiated from that of the religious minister, whose role is considered to be currently underestimated. From this perspective, teaching spiritual care to nurses is not so much achieved through theoretical or experiential analysis and reflection, but by following an established moral pattern; it is not taught so much as caught. It is argued that this traditional approach to spiritual care provides an alternative to current educational ideologies in nursing, and reflects patients' and nurses' own attitudes to - and expectations of - the spiritual dimension of care.