Nursing has both literal and symbolic meanings. Nursing has been part of the care for people longer than the practice of medicine itself. A nurse with a strong spiritual faith, a firm belief in an afterlife and in the power of faith, can help a patient in ways that other nurses simply can’t. This responsibility, then, requires of the nurse the ability to respect, relate, and support the spiritual needs of the patient. The nurse can see the emotional and spiritual toll that illness has upon the patient.