Administration of Sacraments <i>in casu necessitatis</i> by Nurses in Croatia — A Few Qualitative Examples from Clinical Practice

Modern healthcare requires a holistic approach and person–centered care. Rare examples are highlighted in this paper, in which this type of experience is seen not only in view of a patient’s autonomy but also through actions that go beyond certain standardized procedures. It is a higher level of understanding of a human compared to the one of the prevalent biomedical model. This paper outlines the experiences of three nurses from the Republic of Croatia who participated in the administration of sacraments during their regular work in nursing care. These experiences include administering the sacrament of baptism to a newborn with a predicted fatal outcome as the priest was unavailable, and the sacrament of Holy Communion to a patient whom the priest could not physically access. Preliminary results are presented along with a review of the literature, with the aim of preparing a more comprehensive study with a greater number of respondents. The first results show that in the healthcare system of the Republic of Croatia, there are nurses who participate in the administration of sacraments, but they state that they do not have sufficient knowledge about the process. During the formal education of nurses, there are no contents that would deal with the described phenomena, although the necessity of meeting the spiritual needs of patients is emphasized.