The Effect of Spiritual Care Based on the Sound Heart Model on the Spiritual Health of Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

Meeting the spiritual needs of patients with cardiovascular diseases has a significant effect on their speed of recovery and spiritual health, especially in coronary care units (CCUs). The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of spiritual care based on the sound heart model on the spiritual health of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) admitted to the CCU of Chamran Hospital in Isfahan, Iran, in 2016. This clinical trial was conducted on 92 patients with AMI selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 46) and control (n = 46) groups. The spiritual care program based on the sound heart model was regularly carried out for the intervention group over 3 days at 5–8 PM during their hospital stay, and continued for 1 month at home after discharge from the hospital, and the control group only received routine nursing interventions. The patients completed Paloutzian and Ellison’s Spiritual Well-Being Scale at baseline and a month after the intervention. Data were ultimately analyzed using Fisher’s exact test, Mann–Whitney’s test, the Chi-square test, and the t test. The spiritual care program was able to improve the mean scores of religious health (7.8), existential health (9.3) and the total score of spiritual health (17.1) in the intervention group, while these scores reduced to 0.9, 3.4 and 4.2 in the control group. A significant difference was found between the intervention and control groups in terms of the spiritual health score (P < 0.001). The present findings confirmed the effect of spiritual care based on the sound heart model on promoting spiritual health in patients with AMI. Its application as a holistic care approach is therefore recommended for improving the signs and dimensions of spiritual health in patients with coronary artery disease, especially MI.