Nursing, Diabetes, Hemodialysis and COVID-19.

Four key themes are explored in this third issue of the Journal of Religion and Health for 2022: (1) the lead topic for this issue considers the work and spiritual care provided by nurses, which is followed by a series of articles on the subject areas of (2) diabetes and (3) hemodialysis. Then, like previous issues, we again consider (4) research exploring the effects of COVID-19. Finally, this issue presents a miscellaneous collection of articles with respect to various faith dynamics and the findings from several national surveys.

Introduction

Two stresses on an international level continue to affect our globe, namely the Russian-Ukraine War and COVID-19. A previous editorial has noted the views of JORH editors and Springer regarding Russia’s latest war (Carey et al, 2022, p. 921). The malicious invasion into Ukraine has, at the time of writing, now resulted in over 5000 Ukrainian causalities, millions of asylum seekers, and a substantial waste of capital infrastructure, livestock, and crops—which has consequently affected food supplies and resources to multiple other countries (WHO, 2022a). It is sad that Russia did not focus their energy on caring for their own 18 million who have contracted COVID-19, nor comforted the relatives of the 369,000 Russians who have died from the disease. Likewise, COVID-19 continues to claim victims and challenges the economic productivity of all countries (WHO, 2022b). This current issue of JORH also considers the role that religion plays in other common and ongoing international health problems, namely diabetes, end-stage renal disease requiring hemodialysis, and human organ donation. Finally, this issue concludes with a farewell to Ms. Carol Bischoff who retires after years of service to the publisher Springer Nature and to JORH.

Nursing

A previous issue and editorial of JORH (2021; 60:2) considered the work of nurses in health care, noting their substantial contribution to the bio-psycho-social-spiritual care of patients, as well as the rapport, trust and respect that patients have toward nurses (Carey et al, 2021, p. 2). This issue continues that recognition by drawing together research relating to nurses in the USA, Spain, Greece, Iran and most notably Turkey.

First, Stephanie Harris and colleagues from the USA examine the impact of nurses’ personal religious and spiritual beliefs on their mental well-being and burnout; (ii) José Siles-González and co-workers from Spain explore a structural dialectic model of care in nursing research; (iii) Evangelos Fradelos and colleagues from Greece examine research factors affecting nurses’ caring behaviors; and (iv) Hassan Babamohamadi and associates from Iran look at student nurses’ professional competence in providing spiritual care.

From Turkey, (v) Hakime Aslan et al. explore the relationship between compassion fatigue in nurses and work-related stress; (vi) Berna Köktürk Dalcali et al. consider the spiritual care needs of patients in oncology units and nursing practices; (vii) Emine Karaman et al. explore the relationship between spiritual care levels of Turkish nurses and the spiritual well-being of their patients; (viii) Hilal Türkben Polat et al. focus on the relationship between compassion and spiritual care among Turkish nurses; (ix) Seçil Erden Melikoğlu et al. consider the relationship between nursing students’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care and their personal values; (x) Hakime Aslan et al. explore the association between nurses’ spirituality and frequency of spiritual therapeutic care; and finally, (xi) Özlem Arıburnu et al. acknowledge the importance of nurses’ perspectives and experiences regarding organ transplantation in Turkey.

Diabetes and Hemodialysis

A new combined topic within this issue of JORH is that of diabetes and hemodialysis—with attention also paid to blood and organ donation. Marian Botchway et al. begin by examining the influence of religious participation and use of traditional medicine on type 2 diabetes control in Urban Ghana; (ii) Aarti Jagannathan et al. explore the development and validation of a yoga program for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus; (iii) Selda Celik et al. assess the effect of religious coping on disease acceptance and management among patients with diabetes in Turkey; (iv) Akram Ahmad et al. investigate the roles that religion, spirituality, and fasting play in coping with diabetes among Indian migrants in Australia; and (v) Hamid Hojjati et al. examine the relationship between religious beliefs and suffering in hemodialysis patients.

Other researchers such as (vi) Evangelos Fradelos et al. assess the effect of spirituality on the quality of life of hemodialysis patients; (vii) Mustafa Durmus et al. investigate the beneficial effect of spiritual care on anxiety and depression in patients receiving hemodialysis treatment; (viii) Minoo Asadzandi et al. revisit the effect that spiritual care based on the sound heart model has on spiritual experiences of hemodialysis patients; (ix) Fawwaz Alaloul et al. examine the benefits of supportive, confrontative and prayerful coping strategies among end-stage renal disease patients on hemodialysis in Oman; (x) Miriane Zucoloto et al. explore whether religiosity predicts blood donation in Brazil; (xi) Emine Şenyuva et al. discuss the knowledge and attitude of society concerning organ donation in Turkey; and (xii) Filiz Taş et al. conduct a descriptive-relational study to assess the effect of Islamic belief and spiritual well-being on organ donation in Turkey.

COVID-19

The last 10 JORH issues have included reports regarding the challenge of COVID-19, which has now caused over 6 million deaths worldwide (WHO, 2022b). The USA still leads with the greatest number of deaths (1 million), followed by India (524,000). In this issue, Michael Connolly et al. present a scoping review of literature exploring the spiritual needs (and spiritual support) of patients and families within health care settings during COVID-19; (ii) Juan Vega-Escaño and colleagues conduct an integrative review of the scientific literature evaluating the role of spirituality and religiosity in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic; (iii) Radosław Trepanowski et al. discuss results from a cross-national comparison of religion as a predictor of COVID-19 vaccination rates.

The well-known Irish academic Fiona Timmins and her team (iv) report on a preliminary European fact-finding study on spiritual care provided to hospitalized patients during COVID-19; (v) Jones et al. explore religious concerns about COVID-19 vaccines; (vi) the prolific and well-respected researcher Arndt Büssing and his team examine changes in attitude and behavior of Seventh-day Adventists in Germany during COVID-19; (vii) Franciszek Mróz et al. present findings on how religious congregations have ministered to people affected by COVID-19 in Poland; and lastly, (viii) Gobinderjit Kaur et al. investigate issues with COVID-19 among the Sikh community in the UK.

Miscellaneous

Finally, an eclectic collection of articles considers a variety of issues related to belief, disbelief, religion, spirituality, and health, including several articles which report on the findings from large international surveys.

David Speed et al. begin this section by discussing (i) doubt and disbelief concerning Mrdjenovich’s (2018/2019) understandings of the (non)religion–health relationship; (ii) Adam Mrdjenovich then writes a rejoinder challenging Speed et al.’s commentary; (iii) Alexandra Ferreira-Valente et al. question whether religiosity and/or spirituality play a role in the function, pain-related beliefs, and coping of patients with chronic pain; and (iv) Jaydeep Sengupta et al. explore the relevance of yoga in end-of-life care.

Next, (v) Ali Sadeghi Habibabad et al. utilize a unique method in the neurological sciences to investigate color and its effect on promoting a sense of spirituality in the interior space of a mosque; (vi) Ryan Williams et al. use a historical approach to consider help-seeking behaviors in spiritual healing practices from the Panacea Society’s Healing Department records over a 60-year period; and (vii) Junfei Lu et al. explore the spiritual well-being of homeless people using hierarchical regression.

Several articles in this issue present more personal perspectives, such as (viii) Zoe Garoufalia who examines how operating on Jehovah’s Witnesses can present challenging surgical issues, and (ix) Heather Ransom et al. explore the ‘social death’ related to this topic among former Jehovah’s witnesses. Itumeleng Khumalo et al. then assess (x) life among Ghanaian university students and whether religious commitment matters; (xi) Ivan Souček et al. undertake an ethnography of a cult in rural Tamil Nadu; (xii) Danilo Sanches Furlanetto et al. investigate the impact of spirituality on the life course among ten Brazilian Spiritist mediums; (xiii) Marianna Costa et al. describe techniques related to religion-adapted cognitive behavioral therapy; (xiv) Deborah Marin et al. discuss the M.I.C.A.H. Project HEAL in urban under-served communities in the USA; and (xv) Laura Upenieks et al. use a life course framework to test multiple mechanisms that might explain how religious participation predicts future expectations about health.

Finally in this section, (xvi) the highly regarded researcher John Nezlek and his team present data from the 2020 European and World Values Surveys on religion and health; (xvii) Carol Jagger et al. also analyze data from the European Values Survey to determine whether religiosity or spirituality are related to self-reported health expectancy; and finally, (xviii) another valued researcher Niels Hvidt and colleagues present information on the NERSH questionnaire that assesses physician religious characteristics and values and the pooling of data from 12 countries which were collected using this instrument.

Farewell–Carol Bischoff

In a previous editorial (JORH 60:6), we celebrated 60 years of the production of JORH (Carey, 2021, p. 3753). It is important to acknowledge those who have made a substantial contribution to JORH. Carol has fulfilled the role of Senior Editor for Springer Nature for many years and is now retiring. We thank Carol for her careful concern regarding the well-being of JORH and wish her well into the future.

Call for Papers

The JORH editors welcome submissions regarding ‘Judaism’ and/or ‘Suicide.’ Researchers who would like to make submissions on these topics, please email one of the editors as soon as possible. Submissions are made through the Editorial Manager on the JORH web site: https://www.springer.com/journal/10943/submission-guidelines.