Abstract

CALDEIRA, Sílvia; GOMES, Ana Calapez  and  FREDERICO, Manuela. A new paradigm in nurses management - spirituality in the workplace. Rev. Enf. Ref. [online]. 2011, vol.serIII, n.3, pp.25-35. ISSN 0874-0283.

Context: Spirituality at work is an emerging issue in human resource management, but with an obvious absence in nursing. Nurses provide care in particular environments that give rise to spiritual experience, and as spiritual beings they must be cared for by their managers. Objectives: To explore and understand nurses’ perceptions about spirituality in the workplace. Method: Data were collected by a questionnaire including a spirituality at work scale (Rego, Cunha e Souto, 2007a). The sample consisted of 40 nurses attending the complementary training course. Results: Spirituality at work is perceived as “moderate” in 4 dimensions of the scale, and “high” in dimension related to “sense of contribution to the community”, aligning the individual with the values of the organization, joy in the work and opportunities for the interior life, and as “high” on the dimension related to ‘the feeling of being needed by the community”.Conclusions: Although this is exploratory research, the conclusions show that spirituality at work is understood by nurses and should be attended to by managers. Spiritual leadership can bring more creativity, commitment, communication and ethical behavior to nursing teams. This study is a contribution towards further research in this area.

Keywords : workplace; spirituality; nurses.

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