Introduction to Spirituality

This chapter focuses on the concept of spirituality and evaluates some of the theoretical perspectives related to spirituality in healthcare generally. Challenges around defining spirituality, reasons for integrating spirituality into practice, the relationship of spirituality to religion, how to put spirituality into practice and ethical issues are discussed. The large and diverse literature on the history and meaning of the term spirituality is not explored. The chapter instead seeks to explore how spirituality is generally understood and applied in healthcare.