1. Examine the scope and trends of nursing research related to spiritual care
2. Promote dialogue about spiritual care and spiritual care research
3. Collaborate with other nurses in developing and implementing research in spiritual care.
4. Explore research in spiritual care as foundational component for nursing practice, education, and leadership.
5. Discern Christian nursing implications of spiritual care research

HISTORY (taken from Keynote Address by Dr. Leslie VanDover, June 14, 2002)

Since 1995, groups of Christian nurse educators and scholars associated with Nurses Christian Fellowship, have met with the express purpose of encouraging, supporting, and challenging each other to conduct research in the broad area of Spiritual Care. The original prompting for these conferences/ workshops was a concern to add research-based material to the body of knowledge guiding the giving of spiritual care in nursing practice.

In the summers of 1995 and 1996, emphasis was placed on the research process and literature in spiritual care utilizing a quantitative methodology. The four succeeding years (1997-2000), research in spiritual care using a qualitative methodology, specifically grounded theory, was discussed and implemented. Major leadership was provided by Dr. Barbara Artinian of Azusa Pacific University which cosponsored the workshops with NCF.

The Spiritual Care Research Conference hosted by Azusa Pacific University in June 2001 was a landmark event. For three days an international group of Christian nurse researchers presented a broad spectrum of studies in spiritual care applying quantitative, qualitative and mixed methodologies. In conference proceedings is a list of studies by categories.

NCF sponsored a similar but more condensed conference in June 2002. Presenters and topics are detailed.

Celebration of Christian Scholarship: A Research Conference was held at North Park University in Chicago May 18-19, 2003. In addition to research presentations there were two keynote speakers of national repute. Dr. Elizabeth Johnston Taylor provided an overview of research related to spiritual care. After a morning of research presentations, Dr. Marsha Fowler established a foundation for studying the uniqueness of Christian expressions of spirituality (in contrast to spirituality from other traditions.)

In summary, the NCF collaborative project of Research in Spirituality and Spiritual Care in Nursing From a Christian World View is crucial to provide nurses evidence based knowledge to guide their giving of spiritual care, an essential aspect of wholistic health care.