The Impact of Spiritual Care Skills Instruction on Nursing Students’ Achievement Motivation and Styles of Communication with Patient

Introduction: Nurse’s patience and good communication with patient highly depend on nurse’s worldview and his or her relationship with the universe (spirituality). The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of spiritual care skills instruction on nursing students’ achievement motivation and styles of communication with patients in Azad University of Gorgan. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group, 30 students were selected through simple random sampling. Data collection tools were Hermens’ achievement motivation questionnaire and Vakili’s communication questionnaire. Spiritual care skills instruction program was presented to students during 12 ninety-minute sessions within five successive weeks. The control group received no intervention. The data were analyzed using covariance test. Results: Compared to the control group, a significant difference was found between the mean scores of achievement motivation before (67.87±6.84) and after (96.16±13.45) the intervention in the experimental group (P=0.009, F=7.946). Spiritual care skills instruction had a positive effect on non-verbal communication with patients before (55.13±4.62) and after (63.07±5.44) the intervention (P=0.037, F=4.81). This effect was not significant for verbal communication (P=0.794, F=0.070). Conclusion: The results suggested that spiritual care skills instruction enhanced nursing students’ achievement motivation. In addition, this educational intervention promoted their non-verbal communication with patients.