The Impact of Spirituality on Nursing Education Experiences of African American Registered Nursing Students

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the perceptions and experiences of African American registered nursing students enrolled in a post-secondary proprietary Career and Technical Education (CTE) institute. The objectives of this study were to determine how spirituality impacted the nursing education experience of African American Registered Nursing students in post-secondary CTE institutions of higher education and identify African American Registered Nursing students’ perceptions of spirituality and their spiritual well-being. Through thematic analysis six categorizes emerged within three broad perspectives: sociological, psychological and theological. Findings suggest for African American nursing students spiritualty is much more than an aid to coping with stressors as indicated in a dearth of literature, or even as one study suggest a way to relinquish the use of active coping strategies. Spirituality is evidenced by spiritual actions and spiritual actions is evidence of active faith. The qualitative results demonstrated the importance of spirituality in the participant’s personal life, nursing career, and in their college experience. Findings supported many similarities from current literature with a few notable differences regarding how participants felt spiritualty influenced learning and whether it should be included in curriculums.