Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Initiatives for Culturally Competent Care
The Spiritual and Wellness Connection: Journal Reflections of Hispanic and Female College Students
Renee Sethness, PhD, RN, Maureen Rauschhuber, PhD, RN, Mary Elaine Jones, PhD, RN, and Jolynn Lowry, MSN, APRN, BC. School of Nursing and Health Professions, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX, USA
Learning Objective #1: Will be able to articulate the physiologic correlates of heart health in Hispanic college woman in the study sample.
Learning Objective #2: Discuss the spiritual dimensions of wellness deliberated in spirituality journals and their relation to heart health in Hispanic college woman in the study sample.
Spirituality/religiosity is associated with lower blood pressure and decreased mortality among older populations. Few studies have examined spirituality in relation to cardiac health among young populations.     Purpose:  To analyze the dimensions of spirituality in relation to health among a sample of young, predominantly Hispanic college women as described in a spiritual reflections journal.  The goal was to identify the themes emerging from written responses to ten questions on the meaning and purpose of life and the connections college students identify as important in their lives. Methods:  The study combined quantitative descriptive statistics on health indices and a phenomenology methodology to examine written responses in a spiritual reflections journal kept by 19 student volunteers participating in a one semester wellness class.  Students responded to four of ten possible trigger questions such as “What are my beliefs?”, “Where have I experienced feeling connected to others, nature, or an Ultimate Being?”  Journal entries were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the NUDIST analysis program. Four faculty served as a panel of experts for thematic reliability.  Findings: The mean age was 20 years (SD=2.5; Range= 17 to 27 years. Over half had systolic blood pressures in the pre-hypertensive range with one fourth of students with blood lipids in the risk range. The importance of family, friends, and formalized religious practice emerged as important aspects of spirituality.  Discussion:  A significant proportion of journal entries demonstrated concrete notions of formalized religious practice and prayer as aspects of spirituality and spiritual wellness, and a strong sense of family and friendship connections.  There was evidence of a relationship between spirituality, coping and perceived stress, known correlates to cardiac risk.  More study is needed to determine how student views of the mind-body connection in health and its influence on their acceptance of holistic health promotion strategies.

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