If nurses are committed to the care of the whole person, they must include spiritual care into their practice. This descriptive survey was designed to determine if a positive correlation existed between (a) nurses' spiritual well-being, religious well-being and existential well-being, and nurses' attitudes and (b) nurses' spiritual well-being and degree of comfort in providing spiritual care, religious and existential care, for patients.

Study participants were 272 registered nurses randomly selected from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The nurses completed a four part questionnaire: (1) the Health Professional's Spiritual Role (HPSR) Scale; (2) the Spiritual Intervention Comfort (SIC) Scale designed by this researcher; (3) the Spiritual Well-Being (SWB) Scale; and (4) a background data form plus three open-ended questions.

Analyses of the questionnaires indicated that the nurses had a high level of spiritual well-being, religious well-being and existential well-being and positive attitudes toward providing spiritual care for patients (p $<$.001). In addition, nurses were found to have a high level of spiritual well-being and a high degree of comfort in providing spiritual care, religious and existential care (p $<$.001).

Nurses reported that the most important and effective nursing intervention was listening to whatever the patient had to share. Many nurses felt they needed more formal and informal education on spiritual care and more time in their practice day to give spiritual care.

The findings of the study supported the hypotheses. The findings can be generalized to the registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts only. Further study of the variables will guide future research in determining reasons why the spiritual dimension of nursing care is a neglected area, and in identifying nurses with important attributes necessary for leadership in the areas of spiritual intervention.