Dr. Pamela Williams-Jones PhD, RN

“Staying Prayed Up”: A Poem

Tags: COVID-19 faith hardship nursing students poem prayer spiritual well being

The basis of the poem originated from my dissertation titled: The Lived Experiences of Nursing Students Spiritual Well-Being During The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Research Study. The plethora of negative experiences was aggravated by experiences of social isolation arising from movement restrictions and social distancing requirements put in place as measures for containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The qualitative study aimed to examine the concept of the spiritual well-being of senior-level nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, the potential role of spiritual well-being in helping nursing students manage the stress associated with nursing school and coping during the pandemic. As the participants described religious practices being used as coping mechanisms the researcher was led to create the theme indicating a strong relationship with God thus, identified as a “Personal Relationship and Belief in God”. Mainly participants described spiritual well-being in the form of prayer, meditation, scripture, gospel music, apps of positive affirmation, and fasting. The descriptions of religious practices as coping mechanisms further provide insight into how spiritual well-being affects students’ ability to endure all of the hardships and survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. It seemed that no matter the circumstances that were endured the participant made a statement to confirm their faith. Many of the participants described their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic as relying heavily on prayer and staying “prayed up” to handle their experiences, therefore inspiring the poem “Staying Prayed Up”.