Spirituality in nursing and health-related literature: A concept analysis

Spirituality has become an increasingly popular concept among the nursing and health-related literature. The purpose for conducting this concept analysis, guided by Walker and Avant’s methodology, was to (a) examine how spiritual-ity has been used within the current body of nursing and health-related literature, (b) clarify the meaning of spiritu-ality by discovering what this concept’s current critical attributes/characteristics are, and (c) propose a definition of spirituality based on the concept analysis findings. A total of 90 references were reviewed, including 73 nursing and health-related references. Concept analysis findings revealed that spirituality was defined within four main themes in the nursing and health-related literature: (a) spirituality as religious systems of beliefs and values (spirituality = reli-gion); (b) spirituality as life meaning, purpose, and connection with others; (c) spirituality as nonreligious systems of beliefs and values; and (d) spirituality as metaphysical or transcendental phenomena