(BQ) Part 2 book “Oxford textbook of spirituality in healthcare” has contents: Psychiatry and mental health treatment, social work, care of elderly people, palliative care, care of the soul, next steps for spiritual assessment in healthcare, spiritual experience, practice, and community, and other contents. | CHAPTER 30 Nursing Wilfred McSherry and Dr Linda Ross Introduction This chapter presents an overview of the historical and contemporary development of spirituality and spiritual care within nursing. The chapter commences with a historical perspective of nursing care drawing attention to the medical and holistic models that have existed. This is followed by an analysis of the key arguments that provide a basis for spiritual care within nursing. This section reviews some of the primary drivers; political, professional and societal, resulting in nursing engaging with spiritual aspects of the person. It is acknowledged that the concepts and debates outlined in this chapter have a relevance to nursing globally. There is an increasing recognition of the importance that the spiritual part of an individual's life may make to health, wellbeing, and recovery. A significant evidence base to support this is emerging, for example the pioneering work of Koenig et al.[1] The importance of nurses addressing the spiritual dimension is also reflected in some of the healthcare guidance at world, European, and national levels. These issues are discussed in more detail in Ross.[2] Historical perspective Historically, in the West the sick were looked after in religious orders. The body and spirit were cared for together, signifying the practice of truly holistic care at that time, . care of the body, mind, and spirit, where the whole is more than the sum of the parts. There then followed the ‘period of enlightenment’, with all that brought with it, including an escalation in medical research, and knowledge and prevalence of a medical model of treatment which focused on disease processes and cures, rather than the spirit. This medical model still prevails today within many health care services across the world. However, it could be said that, until recently, nursing has never lost sight of the holistic concept of care, which has remained at the heart of the profession right through
