The Introduction of Spiritual Care into the
Associate Degree Nursing Program
of Wesley College, Dover, Delaware
John Neal Brittain

The study and resulting project were carried out by the author to discover the possibility of integrating aspects of spiritual care into the two-year Associate Degree Nursing Program. The study and project were conducted in close cooperation with the faculty of the Division of Nursing of Wesley College, Dover, Delaware.

A literature search reveals a need for the reintroduction of spiritual care into professional nursing education, but no specific models for meeting this need within the tightly structured Associate Degree Program. A measurement of nursing students' religious attitudes and a series of three classroom presentations were designed to integrate spiritual care into the Associate Degree Nursing Curriculum at appropriate places: the nursing process; death, dying and grief; and mental health care.

The model was tested at Wesley College, Dover, Delaware and was evaluated in terms of how well the concepts of spiritual care were integrated into the existing curriculum as well as the performance of students on tests measuring the didactic dimension of this material.

The study concluded that such integration of spiritual care into the Associate Degree Nursing Curriculum is possible if carried out in close cooperation with the faculty and staff. This model may be expanded into the Bachelor of Science for Registered Nurses program at Wesley College and may serve as a model for integrating the spiritual dimension into other professional curricula at church-related institutions of higher education.

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