The aim of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Korean Version of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (K-SCCS).

A cross-sectional study design was used. The K-SCCS consisted of 26 questions to measure spiritual care competence of nurses. Participants, 228 nurses who had more than 3 years'experience as a nurse, completed the survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity and correlations of K-SCCS and spiritual well-being (SWB) were used to examine the criterion validity of K-SCCS. Cronbach's alpha was used to test internal consistency.

The construct and the criterion-related validity of K-SCCS were supported as measures of spiritual care competence. Cronbach's alpha was .95. Factor loadings of the 26 questions ranged from .60 to .96. Construct validity of K-SCCS was verified by confirmatory factor analysis (RMSEA=.08, CFI=.90, NFI=.85). Criterion validity compared to the SWB showed significant correlation (r=.44, p<.001).

The findings suggest that K-SCCS serves as an appropriate measure of spiritual care competence with validity and reliability. However, further study is needed to retest the verification of the factor analysis related to factor 2 (professionalisation and improving the quality of spiritual care) and factor 3 (personal support and patient counseling). Therefore, we recommend using the total score without distinguishing subscales.

This study was done to develop a spiritual care education program (SCEP) for nursing students to help increase their awareness of the essence of spirituality in care so as to enable them to promote spiritual well-being and spiritual care competence.

The participants were assigned to an experimental group (n=42) or a control group (n=39). From August to October 2009, the experimental group participated in the SCEP, which were held 2 hours a week for 6 weeks. The data were analyzed using χ²-test, Fisher's exact probability test, paired t-test, t-test with the SPSS WIN 17.0 statistics program.

The experimental group had a higher mean score for spirituality, spiritual well-being and spiritual care competence than the control group. Significant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group.

The results of this study indicate that the SCEP was effective in improving spirituality, spiritual well-being and spiritual care competence for nursing students.