Workplace spirituality in nursing: A systematic review

Background/Purpose: Although we understand that the nurse’s workplace is a source of intense pressure, the relationship of nurses’ spirituality to other relevant workplace variables is not well understood. The purpose of this review was to synthesize the recent evidence on work performance and workplace spirituality in nurses. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of the electronic bibliographic databases CEPS, Medline/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar was performed using key words and the subject headings “spirituality”, “workplace spirituality”, “work environment”, and “nurse”, according to PRISMA guidelines. This yielded seven studies, with a total of 1,855 participants for review. Results: Seven quantitative studies were included. The findings suggested that nurses’ workplace spirituality was strongly related to work performance and psychological variables, such as turnover intention, withdrawal behavior, emotional exhaustion, organizational citizenship behavior, helping/Ihsan behavior, occupational ethics, job satisfaction, and job stress. A strategy based on enhancing well-being, positive mood, and organizational commitment can enhance positive behaviors in nurses. Conclusion: This review showed that workplace spirituality can enhance nurses’ positive behaviors in an organization, which has a profound impact on quality of performance. Further research should focus on the external factors associated with spirituality as well as examine the long-term impact of spirituality through a longitudinal study. Understanding the impact of workplace spirituality on nurses’ physical and psychological status and professional performance can increase awareness of the importance of workplace spirituality. Designing a spiritual intervention based on nurses’ needs as a means to promote good quality of work is key to retaining nurses.