1. IntroductionSpiritual intelligence is the ability to act wisely and compassionately while retaining inner and exterior serenity, irrespective of the circumstances [1]. It is a crucial coping technique for overcoming physical and mental health issues [2], especially during crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It has a significant role in providing care during a crisis [3] and the subsequent recovery processes after a disaster [4]. Throughout the epidemic of highly contagious avian influenza in Asia, for example, it was found that spirituality was linked to increased levels of pleasant emotions, prosocial behaviour and decreased levels of lawbreaking behaviour [5]. Spiritual intelligence also played a significant role in the provision of care during the deadliest disaster of the Ebola outbreak [3]. Incontrovertibly, individuals turn frequently to spirituality or to find spiritual resources when they struggle, heal and recover during times of loss and grief [4]. Otherwise, those individuals may face mental health challenges, including difficulties with loneliness, despair and a loss of purpose in life, when their spiritual health is gravely jeopardised [6]. Promoting nurses’ spiritual intelligence can benefit their creativity, effectiveness, adaptability, communication skills and patient-centredness [7]. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was assumed that, to provide care, nurses must have goals and meaning in their work. Consequently, spiritual intelligence could enable nurses to be able to define and control life goals and generate personal definitions, as well as to find meaning and purpose in all physical and mental events.The definition of ‘well-being’ encompasses an individual’s assessment of the physical, social and psychological resources needed to overcome a difficulty in their physical, mental or social lives [8]. According to critics, although the clinical paradigm of well-being has drawbacks, including a lack of context sensitivity and the exclusion of results that matter to end users [9], the authors in this current study purport to examine well-being from a comprehensive perspective (i.e., depression, anxiety, energy and positive well-being). The need to consider the well-being of front-line workers has been underscored by significant evidence from comparable extreme situations, including prior epidemics [10]. Healthcare workers are subjected to a number of stressors at work, which may adversely affect their well-being [11]. Previous studies have shown the value of spiritual intelligence for an individual’s well-being [12]. Moreover, evidence points to a strong negative correlation between well-being and spiritual intelligence [13,14].Life satisfaction is a rational method by which people evaluate the quality of their own lives in accordance with a set of hand-selected criteria [15]. It is a multi-dimensional construct representing people’s total self-assessed evaluations of their quality of life, given the importance of well-being [16]. Considering the COVID-19 outbreak, there was an indication that highly driven, productive, and efficient employees were associated with high levels of life satisfaction, which would lower their likelihood of considering leaving their jobs [17]. However, life satisfaction for nurses in a busy working environment has numerous elements that contribute to their level of life happiness, depending on their demographic characteristics, attitude and behaviour [18,19,20,21]. In fact, a significant correlation has been found between a person’s level of spiritual intelligence and how content they are with their lives [22].The challenges that nurses have faced because of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied because they had to care for a significantly larger number of patients, and they were facing a disease regarding which there were still numerous questions and uncertainties. Furthermore, they were dealing with organisational problems at their workplace, which left them feeling fearful and uneasy [23,24]. It is assumed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, perceptions may have differed based on an individual’s experience. To the researchers’ knowledge, no previous study has been conducted to investigate the mediating effect of spiritual intelligence on well-being and life satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

By providing the capacity to create meaningful objectives and reasons for life, spiritual intelligence and well-being could also be utilised to understand the meaning of physical and mental experiences. On a daily basis, nurses face a variety of stressors in their clinical setting, which could jeopardise their well-being and cause them to lose interest in their work. In their hectic schedule, nurses pursue daily goals, both personal and professional. If, for whatever reason, they do not meet their goals, they may become dissatisfied with their lives. For nurses to respond to patients’ needs, and consider patients’ safety and organisational efficiency, it could be helpful to improve their spiritual intelligence, well-being and life satisfaction. Spiritual intelligence also aids nurses in making moral decisions. With these considerations, this study sought to determine the mediating effect of spiritual intelligence on the well-being and life satisfaction of nurses in the context of COVID-19.

4. DiscussionIn this study, the level of life satisfaction was deemed “slightly satisfied”, which implies that the nurses had a normal equilibrium between their present state and their individual goals. According to recent research, nurses are generally satisfied with their lives [21,28]; however, some aspects of their lives could be improved [29]. Nurses who are satisfied with their jobs are more efficient and feel more devoted to their jobs [30]. It has also been shown that nurses’ job satisfaction influences their satisfaction with the services provided [31]. The well-being of the nurses seemed better; this indicates that nurses are aware of an individual’s overall, psychological, interpersonal, and environmental state, each of which interacts with the others and has a different level of significance and influence. In several studies, the authors indicated that high degrees of psychological anguish are prevalent among Saudi Arabian nurses, which threatens their well-being [32,33,34].The spiritual intelligence of the participants was high, implying that the nurses have an intrinsic ability to comprehend existential issues, life’s purpose and the seamlessness of a person’s connectedness to the rest of the world. This current finding coincides with the study of Yadollahpour et al. [35], which specified that nurses benefit in various ways from the encouragement of spirituality at work, including developing a favourable opinion of the company and growing their devotion to it, adhering to work more diligently and thus experiencing more job happiness. The purpose of spirituality is to increase people’s awareness and spread the principles that make life and work better for nurses [36]. The hardships of daily living are merged with one’s spirituality in the community and profession. Nurses who perceive a spiritual connection to their profession display inner strength, tranquillity, patience at work, calmness and a good outlook [35]. Consequently, nurses’ spirituality helps them to cope with complex conditions, especially at work [37]. In the Alquwez et al. [38] study, during a crisis, the spiritual well-being of nurses was found to be just as important as the other aspects of their lives. The bottom line is that nurses with high spirituality have resilience and inner strength., which increases their capacity for adapting to threatening situations more skilfully, handle stressful situations, get through conflict, and adjust to adversity. Additionally, they are as regards better psychological health, which may aid their ability to cope with work-related stress [35,39]. These results contribute to hospital administrators, so much so that nursing staff should have their well-being and spiritual intelligence frequently checked by the administration. Additionally, a lower tier of life satisfaction, well-being, and spiritual intelligence correlates with a higher desire to quit one’s job and, as a result, a staff shortage. The amount of nursing care allocated is strongly impacted by inadequate personnel resources [40].Life satisfaction has a strong association with nurses’ well-being, which means that they enjoy their lives while living well, being capable of acting independently and autonomously, feeling good about themselves and having a purpose in life. This finding advocates those of similar studies [41,42]. However, Lorber et al. [28] noted that nurses working in Slovenian hospitals reported modest levels of life satisfaction and well-being. The health of nurses was also shown to be moderate in other studies [43,44]. It is possible to explain disparities in nurses’ happiness and well-being from hospital to hospital using the results of the earlier study, which emphasised variations in organisational culture [45], organisational support [46], and leadership style [47]. Management staff must understand the value of employee well-being to the organisation, as it fosters improved health, positive self-esteem, stronger interpersonal relationships and resilience [28]. In contrast, life satisfaction has a weak association with spiritual intelligence, which implies that nurses who generally consider their life to be successful likely lack the abilities and behaviour capabilities required to apply spirituality. This finding challenges other research [48,49,50] that found that spiritual intelligence and its components enable people to think deeply about the spiritual considerations, use resources to address difficulties in their lives and act morally [51], all of which boost life satisfaction. Spiritual intelligence fosters internal harmony and enables nurses to appreciate the enjoyable side of life [48]. A study in Iran similarly indicated that increased spiritual intelligence resulted in increased life satisfaction [52]. Nurses with high spiritual intelligence ratings are more aware and employ more resources for problem-solving. They have a more optimistic outlook on the world and are more content in their lives because they have greater ethical qualities [52]. The level of spiritual intelligence can make a significant difference in many areas of life, most notably in life satisfaction. Through this, hospital management staff can ascertain the actual scenario and attempt to understand how crucial it is to monitor workers’ life satisfaction, well-being and spiritual intelligence both to improve employee health and to produce better results. The practical ramifications of the findings imply that treatments aimed at fostering positive life satisfaction, well-being and spiritual intelligence may contribute to improving nursing environments, which may lead to improved methods for ensuring safety and quality as well as improved nursing outcomes.Well-being has a moderate association with spiritual intelligence, which means that nurses’ well-being can be influenced by their spirituality and vice versa by the actions that they take to serve others and practice compassion. This finding validates those of other studies [53,54,55]. Spiritual and religious beliefs provide nurses with hope to consider having a peaceful life by enabling them to understand a few psychological strains placed on them and undesired occurrences that positively impact them [55]. They are happier and more fulfilled physically and spiritually, which makes them more likely to be compassionate towards other people and their patients [56]. Believing in a higher power and a higher goal leads to happiness [57]. Nurses have optimistic thoughts and behaviours, see things in a positive light and work hard to achieve success [58]. Some studies conclude that spirituality’s influence on health significantly affects how long people live and how likely they are to contract diseases [59]. Promoting nurses’ spiritual intelligence can support their efforts to live more holistically, recognize different life patterns, improve communication skills, have a professional sense of a larger objective, understand the true significance of events, create meaningful work environments, and be happier in a more sustainable way. Nurses who are happy in their work environment have a sense of well-being. They can benefit not only themselves but also their co-workers and the organisations for which they work, because they are more productive, capable of making wiser choices, and have better interpersonal interactions [60].The impact of well-being on spiritual intelligence is positive and significant, which means that it is possible to hypothesise that those with high spiritual intelligence can reduce stress because they adhere to a higher power and practice a religion, which is more prevalent than other psychological or physical crises, and presents opportunities to learn and develop. Spiritual nurses exhibit virtues such as kindness, compassion, empathy, forgiveness, and charity [61]. It follows that nurses with high spiritual intelligence have better stress management skills since spiritual intelligence has a favourable and large direct effect on life satisfaction. Compared to other professions, nurses are more likely to experience life crises and learn from them. Spiritually intelligent nurses display qualities such as humility, kindness, humanism, compassion, and love [62]. In addition, nurses with high spiritual intelligence are stabler, more confident in themselves and better able to handle problems at work [62]. Accordingly, barriers are eventually eliminated while enhancing individual effectiveness and performance, workplace communication and mutual understanding [63]. Workplace spiritual intelligence can infuse organisations with humanity to foster responsibility and productive environments, laying the groundwork for successful operations and, ultimately, satisfaction with life. Such a result of the present study agrees with several other studies [63,64]. They contend that utilising spiritual intelligence can help to solve issues based on their importance and status and that it also allows individuals to be aware of how well they are performing in achieving their objectives and how much satisfaction they are receiving because of their actions.Since well-being has a positive and large direct effect on life satisfaction, it is likely that well-being in all of its dimensions—mental, physical, and social—is what enables one to keep a successful and upbeat attitude on life and, therefore, is a source of life satisfaction. According to Hashemi and Abbasi [63], striving for perfection in a person’s realisation of their true potential constitutes well-being. From this perspective, welfare refers to an effort to advance and transcend that shows up in the realisation of a person’s skills and talents. Undoubtedly, adopting this behavioural strategy can contribute to life satisfaction. Given that nurses’ physical and mental health are prone to risk, it could be a crucial factor in determining how satisfied they are with their lives. Because they create the groundwork for increasing the spiritual intelligence of nurses and other healthcare professionals, it is suggested that this association be maintained, as this study showed a favourable and significant link between well-being and life satisfaction. In hospitals and health facilities, a more meaningful approach to well-being and its components has been adopted, considering the broader context of expanding religious beliefs.The mediation analysis’s findings demonstrated that well-being has a strong indirect impact on life satisfaction. Finally, the overall impact of well-being on satisfaction with life is positive and significant, which suggests that the nurses lived well, and could include making possible a satisfying life experience that has been fully lived. Tekir’s [65] study reported that being in a state of well-being involves having an optimistic personal view, being aware of personal strengths and weaknesses, accepting oneself for who one is, being content with oneself, being able to act on one’s initiative and finding meaning in one’s life. As research advocates [65,66,67], well-being and life satisfaction are closely related. The degree to which a person contributes to society is their level of well-being. To handle and adjust to difficult events, such as the important cases they come across in their professional setting, nurses need a high level of well-being. Being in good health means having the inner strength to act on your resolve and accept your own experiences [68]. Adopting this behaviour can certainly enhance life satisfaction. Life satisfaction is essential in nurses’ lives because it helps them cope with stress and achieve their goals [65].

This study has implications for nursing practice because the ability to live without worry, fear or anxiety facilitates an increase in spiritual growth, making nurses stronger and creating opportunities for them to participate in novel activities and carry out their duties with greater clarity, meaning and purpose. Because fear of change comes from one’s mind and not from the environment around them, spiritual intelligence aids people in overcoming this fear. Growth in one’s capacity to understand emotions and assist others in better emotional control results from developing spiritual intelligence. The development of spiritual intelligence skills at all levels and for all people has a significant impact on the fulfilment of transcendentalism and the significance of society.

Study Limitations

A few limitations apply to this study. However, such limitations can be addressed by further inquiry, by taking the aforementioned limitations and using qualitative design to widen the perspective regarding the mediating effect of spirituality on well-being and life satisfaction. The exclusion of private hospitals, nurses with managerial positions and failure to correlate other demographics (e.g., nationality, marital status) can all be cited as limitations. Primary healthcare nurses may also participate in the study to have their perspectives included.