The relationship between psychiatric nurses's spiritual care practices, perceptions and their competency

Objective: The research aimed to examine the relationship between psychiatric nurses' spiritual care practices, perceptions and competencies. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted as a descriptive and correlational study. The sample of research included 128 psychiatric nurses. Results: Psychiatric nurses; Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale item score mean was 3.93 ± 0.49 and their mean total score of this scale was 66.92 ± 8.43, the Spiritual Care Competency Scale of psychiatric nurses item score mean was 3,54 ± 0,63 and and their mean total score of this scale was 95,77 ± 17,02. There was no significant relationship between Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale and Spiritual Care Competency Scale (p>0,05). As a result of multiple regression analysis, psychiatric nurses' which accounts for only 20.1% of spiritual and spiritual care perceptions of feel incompetent about spiritual care, one of the reasons for not meeting spiritual care. Conclusions: Psychiatric nurses' perceptions of spiritual and spiritual care were high, but their competence was not at the desired level. Key words: psychiatric nursing, spirituality, spiritual care, perception, competence