When nurses grieve: spirituality's role in coping.

This study explored spirituality as an aspect of support for nurses grieving the loss of patients. Previous research has sought to understand the grief support needs of nurses; spirituality is one support nurses describe. Fifty-eight nurses responded to questions related to spirituality from a Needs Assessment Questionnaire (NAQ) designed to study grief support for nurses. Nurses reported spirituality as important in their daily lives (75%) and in helping them cope with patient-related grief (70%), and cited spiritual-based resources as beneficial in coping. Spirituality can play an important role in coping with grief and should be included in nurses' support.