Table 1

Demographics of physicians and characteristics of nursing homes

Physicians
Age, mean (SD)	46.7 (9.5)
Female, %	66.0
Additional training, %
Geriatric rehabilitation	26.0
Psychogeriatric	7.5
Palliative care	6.0
Ethics	2.5
Years specialisation elderly care physician, mean (SD)	12.7 (8.4)
Current religion/Religious background, %
Roman Catholic	10.3	41.8
Protestant	13.9	30.1
Evangelical	1.4	1.4
Jewish	0.0	0.0
Islamic	0.7	1.1
Humanistic	2.5	1.8
Buddhist	0.7	0.7
Atheist	4.6	3.9
Agnostic	2.1	0.4
None	54.8	12.8
Other, such as Hindu, or several religions	8.9	6.0
Religious and Spiritual Beliefs and Practices Scale, summed score	11.5 (4.4)
About how often do you attend religious or spiritual services?
Daily	0.4
Weekly	13.2
Monthly	13.2
Once a year	29.5
Not at all	43.8
About how often do you spend time in private religious or spiritual practices?
Daily	24.3
Weekly	15.4
Monthly	16.4
Once a year	15.7
Not at all	28.2
How strongly religious (or spiritually orientated) do you consider yourself?
Not at all	15.2
Not very strong	15.2
Somewhat strong	46.1
Strong	23.4
How often have you felt as though you were very close to a powerful spiritual force that seemed to lift you outside yourself?
Often	6.8
Several times	21.8
Once or twice	17.9
Never	53.6
How close do you feel to God (or a Higher Force)?
Extremely close	6.4
Somewhat close	22.5
Not very close	36.8
I don’t believe in God	34.3
Nursing homes
Religious affiliation nursing home, %
Roman Catholic	16.3
Protestant	9.2
Humanistic	2.1
Antroposophic	0.7
Buddhist	0.0
None	58.9
Other	12.8
Disciplines to refer to when resident has spiritual needs, %
Spiritual counsellor	93.2
Humanistic counsellor	16.0
Psychologist	88.3
Nurse specialised in social and psychiatric needs (SPV)	8.9
Imam	4.6
Pandit	1.1
None	1.8
In region of nursing home religious background is predominantly, %
(Roman) Catholic	69.9
Protestant	69.9
Evangelical	2.5
Jewish	1.8
Islamic	8.7
Humanistic	5.1
Buddhist	1.8
Atheist	7.6
Agnostic	2.9
No religious background	18.8
Other religious background	2.2
Our nursing home has experience in providing spiritual care to Muslim residents, %	19.3
Our nursing home has experience in providing spiritual care to residents with dementia, %	78.3
Our nursing home created the following conditions to provide spiritual care
The right atmosphere in the nursing home to provide spiritual care	52.9
Meditation room	65.8
Possibility to perform religious services	88.5
Sufficient capacity of the following disciplines (more answers possible, % of those who indicated sufficient capacity):
Spiritual counsellor	86.8
Physicians	63.2
Nursing staff	53.0
Psychologists	70.5
Other, such as rituals, music therapy, aroma therapy	10.8