This essay introduces the special issue, provides criteria for evaluating spiritual exemplars, presents a case study to illustrate how spiritual exemplars can extend our knowledge of spiritual development, and makes important distinctions between types of exemplars and between positive and pathological spirituality.

BACKGROUND Organizations that encourage the respectful expression of diverse spiritual views have higher productivity and performance, and support employees with greater organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Within healthcare, there is a paucity of studies which define or intervene on the spiritual needs of healthcare workers, or examine the effects of a pro-spirituality environment o...

OBJECTIVES Studies have shown beneficial effects from practicing the relaxation response (RR). Various pathways for these effects have been investigated. Previous small studies suggest that spirituality might be a pathway for the health effects of the RR. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that increased spiritual well-being by eliciting the RR is one pathway resulting in improved psycholo...

BACKGROUND Spiritual well-being is an important dimension of quality of life (QOL) and is a core component of quality oncology and palliative care. In this analysis, we aimed to describe spiritual well-being outcomes in a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-supported Program Project that tested the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary palliative care intervention in lung cancer patients and their ...

A causal theory of spiritual leadership is developed within an intrinsic motivation model that incorporates vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love, theories of workplace spirituality, and spiritual survival. The purpose of spiritual leadership is to create vision and value congruence across the strategic, empowered team, and individual levels and, ultimately, to foster higher levels of organiz...

BACKGROUND Sleep disorders are considered as one of the most important problems in hemodialysis patients, making their everyday life a serious hazard. Sleep quality of hemodialysis patients and consequences of sleep disorders on other aspects of health such as spiritual well-being are important issues. OBJECTIVES This study examined the relationship between spiritual well-being and quality of...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to explore if and how spiritual needs are assessed and if spiritual care is provided to Dutch nursing home residents, including residents suffering from dementia, and if and how caregivers communicate and collaborate regarding the residents' spiritual needs. DESIGN Two researchers conducted an ethnographic participatory study in a Dutch nursing home betwee...

What are the differences between experiences that people consider spiritual and experiences that they consider enjoyable? Participants were asked to provide autobiographical narratives of either spiritual or enjoyable experiences, and the two types of narratives were compared. In Study 1 (n= 142), the differences between the narratives was established via judge-based thematic content analysis. ...

The research investigated the level of association of ‘Age and Spiritual Maturity’ among the leaders of different age groups. Hypothesis assumed as a base of this research was tested on the data of 100 respondents collected from the leaders at various levels. Research also illuminates how spiritual maturity grows among the leaders as they gain experience and get old aged. During the research it...

Although some consumers desire to integrate spirituality into the clinical dialogue, few resources have appeared in the literature to help practitioners operationalize spiritual strengths. This article introduces and orients practitioners to a new pictorial instrument-the spiritual lifemap-that can be used for spiritual assessment. The instrument facilitates a smooth transition from assessment ...