Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the research trends of spiritual care in Korea and to make suggestions for future studies. Methods: 209 researches from 1981 to 2012 were analyzed. Results: Among the 209 studies reviewed. 74 were thesis studies and 135 for reported research in academic journal. There were 169 quantitative studies, 11 qualitative studies and 29 other types studies. The most frequently used study design was correlational. The majority of study participants were patients, followed by nursing students, nurses or non-medical participants. In the correlation studies, the variable of spiritual well-being had a positive correlation with hope, self-esteem and spiritual nursing care and a negative correlation with depression, anxiety and loneliness. In the experimental studies, the independent variables were spiritual nursing intervention, spiritual care education program and spiritual promoting intervention. The main theme of qualitative studies were the experience of spiritual care, spiritual experience and the most frequent designs were grounded theory, phenomenology and interpretative phenomenology. Conclusion: The domestic research about spiritual care needs to utilize a variety of approaches including concept or tool development study suitable for Korean peoples, multi-disciplinary research, qualitative study and program development study.