Spiritual Care in the Undergraduate Nursing Degree in Portugal
Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript entitled “Spiritual care in undergraduate nursing degree in Portugal” is a communication. The purpose of study was to identify the explicit presence of spiritual care in undergraduate nursing curricula in Portugal.
Based on the overall review of the manuscript, authors should consider some issues regarding key points of the communication, which could be further developed and improved in the revised version of the communication.
Some points for improvement:
- The Introduction section is clear and focus on the main ideas, but It seems that the work presented is part of a larger study and it would be interesting to better clarify this study within the global study.
- The Methodology section is poor. The manuscript can be strengthened by making a more detailed presentation of the methodology. The research methods and procedures are not clearly and sufficiently described for other researchers to replicate them. The authors should thus include more information to clarify and justify the choice of such methodological design.
- The results are consistent with the nature of research question. However, authors should highlight What does this research tell us that we didn’t already know? What new does this communication bring to the table?
- Authors could deepen the conclusions and implications: what are the implications of the study? How can this information be useful for academics and other stakeholders, with responsibility for the curriculum development? What are recommendations for future work?
Best wishes with the rewriting process.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
An original contribution to the nursing literature on spirituality and spiritual care. My substantive feedback is about what seem to be unexamined assumptions that shape the interpretation and conclusions: (i) the assumption that everyone has a spiritual dimension ... see the exchange between Paley and Pesut et al. in this regard. While this claim is common in the nursing literature, there those who truly do not believe they have a spiritual dimension, and nursing scholarship must hold space for this type of situation (ii) the claim that spirituality is private. While there are individual values and beliefs related to spirituality, and the experience of the sacred is often profoundly personal, spirituality can be political and public (see Reimer‐Kirkham, S. (2019). Complicating nursing's views on religion and politics in healthcare. Nursing Philosophy, 20(4), e12282.). (iii) an interprofessional approach to spiritual care. Nurses require guidance as to the scope of their role in relation to spiritual care. It is dangerous to put forward the case that nurses provide spiritual care, without more distinction as to which aspects of spiritual care nurses within nurses' scope of practice -- see: Donesky, D., Sprague, E., & Joseph, D. (2020). A new perspective on spiritual care: Collaborative chaplaincy and nursing practice. Advances in Nursing Science, 43(2), 147-158. (iv). The authors fall into the binary of religion as bad and spirituality as good. This is problematic because many patients take spiritual strength from their religious beliefs, practices, and communities. The authors are encouraged to nuance the tone of the article, so it is more informed and reflective of contemporary nursing scholarship.
There are editorial corrections to be made:
- what are "Dublin descriptors"
- what is HEI ideology?
Word missing on p.2 after "state-of-the-art"
First paragraphs under Materials and Methods are choppy (e.g., with only 1 sentence per paragraph).
Avoid the colloquial use of "it would be interesting" (last sentence)
Abbreviation HEI is written as HIE
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have answered most of my comments and suggestions. The communication has won in clarity and quality. Now the communication is suitable for publication in its current form.
