Provider Roles in Spiritual Care
Use the articles provided in the readings for this module. The Joint Commission provides some guidelines for creating spiritual assessment tools for evaluating the spiritual needs of patients. Using these resources and any other guidelines/examples you can find, make up your own tool for assessing the spiritual needs of patients. The spiritual-needs assessment tool should include a minimum of five questions that can either be answered by the patient and/or by your observation of the patient. The information can be presented in a Word document, in a table, or in questionnaire format. Using your assessment-tool questions, practice completing a spiritual assessment with a patient, family member, or friend. Once complete, analyze your results in 825 words, with the following: Write a brief summary of your assessment findings. What significant discoveries did you make about the individual you chose to assess? What went well? What would you do differently in the future? Were there any barriers or challenges that inhibited your ability to complete the assessment tool? How would you address these in the future or change your assessment to better address these challenges? Describe the spiritual experience you had with your patient, family member, or friend using this tool. How does this tool allow you to better meet the needs of your patient? While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment. In text citations is very important Submit your assessment tool, patient answers, and your analysis of how the assessment went to the instructor. Writer should use the link provided below as the tool for evaluating spiritual assess http://www(dot)pastoralreport(dot)com/archives/spiritual.pdf http://www(dot)jointcommission(dot)org/standards_information/jcfaqdetails.aspx?StandardsFaqId=290&ProgramId=1
Provider Roles in Spiritual Care
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Mrs. Mary Jones is 55-year-old and lives with advanced stage cancer and currently undergoing treatment using radiation therapy. The patient gave consent towards assessment, and with no record of psychological problems reported it was deemed necessary to carry on with the evaluation based on Mary’s answers and my observations. Consequently, the assessment was carried out using the HOPE model of spiritual assessment. The questions were open ended and the responses were rated according to how the patient interpreted information focusing on spiritual matters. Mary reported that she is a firm believer and of Catholic denomination, going to Church regularly where possible.
A look into the findings of the spiritual assessment showed that there is a need to address spirituality in health. Mrs. Jones stated that her faith was important in her life and although she knew that doctors did what was humanly possible to improve health matters, religion offered hope and comfort among religious people. In the health care settings, it is difficult to follow organized religion, and since religious services are almost non-existent, faith still plays big role in her life. Consequently, spiritual assessment is essential to understand patient’s spiritual needs in health care settings. The assessment were based on HOPE tool which stands for: H- What are your sources of hope during difficult time?, O- Organized religion, P – Patient’s Personal spirituality and practices? and, E- Effects of medical care and end of life issues? (Anandarajah & Hight, 2001).
According to the Joint Commission (2013), assessing what offers hope in spiritual assessment is a major aspect of the evaluation. One of the major conclusions from the assessment is that belief in God is a big source of hope for the patient. Nonetheless, the support of family and friends complements their faith. Thus, a strong social support is also critical for spirituality to be integrated in the health sector. Spiritual assessment is an important aspect of patient care that is often neglected, and yet it has the potential to improve patients lives (JCAHO, 2005).
The assessment surprisingly had no major hurdles; the patient was cooperative even when in pain and gave straightforward answers. This would probably not have been possible if the patient was skeptical about religion. The responses were short and precise, and the patient was willing to engage more on religious matters. The spiritual assessment enabled me to learn about the patient and her views about spirituality and its place in clinical practice.
The Joint Commission highlighted on the need for cultural sensitivity in dealing with spiritual matters. In light of this, I would be more culturally sensitive given that the demographics in the country have led to cultural diversity. Thus, in future I will strive to gain knowledge on how to handle patients with different religious practices, and views on health. In other words, the interven...