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Spirit
Published in Lisa Zammit, Georgeanne Schopp, Relational Care, 2022
Lisa Zammit, Georgeanne Schopp
Clinicians need to be cognizant of spiritual issues. Acknowledging and recognizing spiritual distress facilitates referral to the appropriate spiritual or mental health counselor. Table 5.2 lists many common spiritual issues faced by Patients, Families, and Clinicians.
Compassionate Presence
Published in Kathleen Benton, Renzo Pegoraro, Finding Dignity at the End of Life, 2020
The clinical model of interprofessional spiritual care is based on a generalist–specialist model where all clinicians are generalist–spiritual care providers, while board-certified chaplains or spiritual care professionals are the experts in this area. Suffering in this model is viewed both clinically and philosophically. From the clinical perspective, spiritual distress is defined as a diagnosis and includes meaninglessness, hopelessness, despair, conflict with religious beliefs, separation from the transcendent, need for reconciliation, and need for rituals. While this approach is reductionist, it has made inroads in clinical care because it makes philosophical and theological concepts accessible in the clinical setting. Spiritual distress as a clinical definition of suffering can be as “simple” as meaninglessness, despair, or conflict with religious beliefs. But each of these diagnostic words to describe suffering has complex theological, philosophical, and humanistic underpinnings. Generalist–spiritual care professionals need not have theological training to recognize these categories of distress and to be present to the patient as that patient shares their suffering. However, specialist spiritual care professionals do have theological, philosophical, and humanistic training and therefore are able to explore spiritual distress in greater depth with patients. In this way, reductionism is only an opening to profound human interactions and explorations.
Concepts on spiritual assessment/s
Published in Barbara Hemphill, Occupational Therapy and Spirituality, 2019
A loss of meaning is the greatest crisis a person might experience when faced with illness or disease. People are able to face great physical and emotional trauma, but they might be unable to bear the sense of meaninglessness. People can overcome pain, disease, or hardship, but when they believe they are no longer needed, that they can no longer contribute, and that their life adds up to no meaning, they are in spiritual crisis (Howard & Howard, 1997). Hay (1989) and Smucker (1996) agree. Anandarajah and Hight (2001) add to the discussion about spiritual distress and spiritual crises and distress. The authors wrote that: Spiritual distress and spiritual crises occur when individuals are unable to find sources of meaning, hope, love, peace, comfort, strength, and connection in life or when conflict occurs between their beliefs and what is happening in their life. This distress can have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health. Medical illness and impending death can often trigger spiritual distress in patients and family members.(p. 86)
Addressing spiritual needs in palliative care: proposal for a narrative and interfaith spiritual care intervention for chaplaincy
Published in Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 2023
Iris R. Wierstra, Anke I. Liefbroer, Lenneke Post, Thijs Tromp, Jacques Körver
Although patients may express the need to talk about spirituality and the end of life with their health care providers, many care workers such as physicians and nurses struggle to provide spiritual care (Koper et al., 2019; Sinclair & Chochinov, 2012). The provision of spiritual care is hampered by institutional elements such as staff shortage, a high workload, a lack of training in addressing the spiritual domain, and personal or cultural elements like considering spirituality a personal matter or feeling inadequate to address patients’ spirituality due to religious differences (Koper et al., 2019). When spiritual issues are insufficiently addressed, this may induce spiritual distress (Murray et al., 2004). As professionals in spiritual care, chaplains provide support, guidance, and advice regarding meaning, worldview, and spirituality (VGVZ, 2015). These professionals are ideally suited to provide spiritual care in palliative care. However, the structural contribution of chaplains in palliative care remains relatively small (Damen & Leget, 2017). In this article, we focus explicitly on the care chaplains can provide in the palliative phase.
Statistical fit is like beauty: A rasch and factor analysis of the Scottish PROM
Published in Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 2022
Austyn Snowden, Leila Karimi, Heather Tan
Table 5 shows the five PROM items in rows, and the Likert categories in columns. The cells represent the numerical score associated with the relevant item and category. It shows, for example that checking ‘all the time’ to all the items would result in a maximum score of 20, and likewise checking ‘often’ to them all would score fifteen. Scoring ‘some of the time’ to anxiety, peace and honesty and ‘often’ to outlook and control would score (3 × 2) + (2 × 3) = 12. There are numerous ways to score 9 and lower, but all of them would require at least one response in the ‘rarely’ category. Scoring 8 would need at least two responses in the ‘rarely’ category. Scoring any of the items as ‘rarely’ equates to the person saying they hardly ever feel at peace, or in control, or honest with themselves, and so on. It makes sense that this would be a valid indicator of spiritual distress.
A quality improvement project to standardize chaplain documentation in the electronic medical record
Published in Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 2022
Nicholas S. Stewart, Joanne L. S. Henley, Leah S. Smith, Jonna R. Garvin
Integration is identified as viewing the segments of the life narrative, the health care journey, and/or the care being received as parts of a united whole that fit together in an appropriate and healthy way. Patients often experience spiritual distress when their belief system or life story does not seem congruent with the experience of an illness. When this happens, patients may feel abandoned by the Divine, a loss of self-worth, or the need to “give up.” The role of the chaplain is to guide patients through reframing their narratives in ways that promote healthy perspectives, relationships, and ways of being engaged. Meaning is the articulation of a sense of purpose in life and/or assigning a healthy understanding to the experiences of hospitalization. Meaning does not require that illness was purposeful or intended, but rather acknowledges that illness has happened and the patient takes agency in utilizing the experience in a way offers new wisdom or perspective. It exercises a sense of control over circumstances that may have arisen beyond the patient’s control.