Community Mental Health Nursing Consultation in a Public Bathhouse: A Spiritual Coping Resource

Abstract

(1) Background: The spiritual dimension’s importance in health/disease processes is widely recognized, also being demonstrated by scientific evidence. Hence, its study is crucial, particularly with respect to a Mental health nursing consultation occurring in a community resource, such as a public bathhouse. This study aims to identify the nursing interventions of spiritual nature developed over 5 years in the abovementioned setting, thus characterizing the Portuguese reality; (2) Methods: Observational, cross-sectional and quantitative study, based on a sample comprising all users who attended a community Mental health nursing consultation, from March 2015, to 31 December 2019; (3) Results: A total of 205 nursing appointments were performed, from which emerged a set of 346 diagnoses, resulting in 455 nursing interventions. Of the latter, some deserve to be highlighted, due to a greater prevalence: “listening” (61; 13%), “supporting” (38; 8%), “promoting self-esteem” (37; 8%), “monitoring vital signs” (31; 7%), and “identifying attitude towards care” (25; 5%); (4) Conclusions: even though some of the interventions performed during the consultations were associated with the spiritual dimension, the collected data points towards a need for new diagnoses and nursing interventions, namely, those which may help mitigate spiritual distress.

Keywords

• nursing assessment
• spirituality
• vulnerability
• public bathhouse