Self-perceived spiritual care competencies among nursing and midwifery students in Slovenia : a cross-sectional study

Mlinar Reljić, Nataša (author), McSherry, Wilfred (author), Skubic, Metka (author), Mihelič Zajec, Andreja (author), Babnik, Katarina (author), Karnjuš, Igor (author)

Aim: Spiritual care is vital to patient-centred care, yet gaps persist in nursing and midwifery education. This study presents theself-assessed spiritual care competencies of Slovenian nursing and midwifery students. Design: A cross-sectional design was used. Methods: A non-experimental, cross-sectional design was applied to a purposive sample of 319 undergraduate and graduate nursing and midwifery students. Data were collected based on the Spiritual Care Competency Self-Assessment Tool. Results: The results showed that 51.7% (n = 165) of students demonstrated a moderate level of spiritual care competence, 40.4%(n = 129) achieved a good level and only 5.3% (n = 17) attained a high level. Nursing students scored significantly higher than midwifery students (p < 0.05), particularly in intrapersonal and interpersonal spirituality. Female students reported higher competence in spiritual care planning and interpersonal spirituality compared with males (p < 0.05). No significant differences were found regarding study format, year of study, or religious affiliation. Conclusions: The findings highlight the need for targeted educational interventions to improve spiritual care training, ensuring that all healthcare students develop the necessary competencies to provide holistic, patient-centered care. Patient or Public Contribution: Nursing and midwifery students participated in this study.

• Language: English
• Keywords: patient-centred care, spiritual care, Slovenia
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: ZF - Faculty of Health Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 8 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 13, iss. 1, art. e70402
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-177723
• UDC: 616-083:27-184.3
• ISSN on article: 2054-1058
• DOI: 10.1002/nop2.70402
• COBISS.SI-ID: 263389699
• Publication date in RUL: 05.01.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Nursing open
• Shortened title: Nurs. open
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• ISSN: 2054-1058
• COBISS.SI-ID: 525256729

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• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.