Spiritual Assessment
NUR 645E
Grand Canyon University
April 3, 2013
Abstract
Evidence has linked a strong relationship between spirituality and medicine. There is a positive correlation between a patient’s spirituality or religious commitment and health outcomes. A spiritual assessment as a part of a health assessment is a practical step to incorporating patient’s spiritual needs into practice. The FICA Tool and HOPE Questions provide serve to assist clinicians in the spiritual assessment process. By examining the research done using these tools, it has been determined that the FICA Tool is easy to use and provides basic data on a patient’s spirituality. The FICA tool is both reliable and valid. The HOPE Questions are
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When choosing a tool, a clinician should remember that the tool should be patient centered and nonintrusive. The wording and language should be in a style that encourages participation; the language should not alienate or discriminate between religious groups (McSherry & Ross, 2002).
The Faith, Importance and influence, Community, and Address in Care (FICA) Spiritual History Tool provides a way for “the clinician to efficiently integrate open-ended questions into a standard medical history and can be used by any health care professional” (Borneman, Ferrell, & Puchalski, 2010). The FICA tool explores the presence of faith, the importance of spirituality, the influence a person’s spirituality has on their health care decisions, the involvement in a spiritual community, and the interventions to address spiritual needs (Borneman et al., 2010).
The sources of Hope, meaning, comfort, Organized religion, Personal spirituality, and Effects on medical care (HOPE) Questions is another spiritual assessment tool. It was “developed as a teaching tool to help medical students incorporate a spiritual assessment into the medical interview” (Anadarajah & Hight, 2001). The open ended questions allow for a discussion of a patient’s spiritual resources and concerns. The Hope Questions address the basic areas of a formal spiritual assessment. H pertains to patients
I have spent the majority of my career in the ED and have recently transitioned into a management role so it has been years since I performed a spiritual assessment. However, while working on the inpatient unit, I can recall performing spiritual assessments as a part of the admission assessment. Far less detailed that the FICA spiritual assessment, the basic assessment included the patient’s religious preference, religious commitment scoring, and desire for a Chaplain during their hospital stay. Spiritual assessments relay the individual’s spiritual life history, allowing practitioners to gain multidimensional insight into family dynamics and spiritual framework (Hodge, 2001).
Hi Amalia, I am very impressed the way you give importance to the compassionate listening while doing assessment .As you mention active empathetic listening enhance the open communication between the patient and listener. Lack of time ,lack of experience of the health professional, difficulty in identifying who wanted to discuss spiritual issues, and a belief that spiritual assessment not our part of responsibility are the most common barriers to the spiritual assessment (Saguil & Phelps, 2012). Spiritual assessment often provide direction for healthcare professionals interested in a more holistic approach to patient well-being. The heart of spiritual care is empathetic presence (Knight, n.d.). Empathetic presence involves many skills and components
There are many spiritual assessment tools such as FICT, FACT, HOPE, RCOPE, Stoll’s guidelines etc. According to LaRocca, (2007), healthcare professionals in acute care setting can use another spiritual assessment tool “FACT”. I like this tool because it is short and easy to use. This tool includes a short history with three questions (Faith, Availability, and Coping) plus an outcome (Treatment). A spiritual history provides information about a person’s spiritual life, history, and practices and on how these affect their ability to cope with their present healthcare crisis. It is important to know because faith or spirituality helps patient to cope with a health crisis. Furthermore, it is a fact that a person’s faith or spiritual practice affects
This involves understanding each patient’s personal meaning of disease and how it influences their values and beliefs (REF 1). There exist many tools designed to assess spiritualty; however, it is debated whether spirituality can truly be quantifiably measured due to its purely personal nature (REF 2). With this in mind, recent research on spirituality suggests that nurses use no formal assessment for spiritual needs (REF 2). Instead, assessment should be carried out through methods that help the patient reflect on their disease, values, and beliefs; as the patient reflects, the nurse should closely observe for clues indicative of spiritual needs (REF 2). Indeed, from my own experience, discovering a patient’s spiritual needs is deeply rooted in a transcendent connection based on profound compassion. This involves skilled communication and sensitivity on the nurses part (REF 3). The proper use of these skills will encourage the patient to share their deep wishes and concerns, and allow the nurse to pick up on cues that could lead to the recognition of a spiritual need (REF 3). Through proper assessment, nurses can glean an understanding of their patient’s personal sense of spirituality, and plan care that addresses those
In health care, health care professionals come in contact with various religions, cultures, beliefs, and worldviews. Although many of the world views may differ, faith in a higher power remains the same. Furthermore, being able to compare two prevalent cultures such as Christianity and Buddhism, shows that faith is prevent along with the rituals that go along with them. However, for many, taking care of someone with a different religious preference can be difficult at times, the basic underlying concepts of health, healing, and kindness remain the same. This paper will address the different worldview questions, compare the different beliefs, spiritual perspectives, critical components, important
Examination of the list of interfacing disciplines reveals a variety of boundaries which must be respected if optimum cooperation is to be achieved. There is a more general boundary between "healthcare" and "spiritual care", defining respective areas of expertise, for appropriate consultation and/or referral. An important need of the new field is to identify ethical ways to communicate essential patient care information across this important boundary, especially when one or the other party has information critical to the successful work of the other, in the patient's behalf.
FICA was formulated by a group health care professionals (physicians) and currently authenticated by City of Hope. In addition, FICA is generally known in the United States (US) as well as Canada. Moreover, it is being applied to investigate spiritual distress, occurs when a person is incapable of finding the sources of optimism, affection, truce, energy, and associations in life or when a battle happens between a person’s principle and what is the circumstances in his life (Anandarajah & Hight, 2001), classify the patient’s origin of energy and to incorporate the identified information to patient plan of care. On the hand HOPE, Anandarajah & Hight, (2001) stated that the questionnaires in HOPE evaluation tools have not been substantiated by
A Spiritual Condition Evaluation paper will be required of you. (Note: Write about yourself. However, If you would rather not write about yourself, you may select a living famous person to evaluate with the instructor’s prior approval. Remember in the final analysis, whether writing about yourself or someone else, only God knows a person’s heart completely so try to be both humble and gentle). This document will run from 900–1,500 words. You will use the course’s
The primary purposes of this article are to emphasize that more than just the patient benefits from spirituality in healthcare and to highlight the advantages and rewards HBHPs receive with spiritual services. In the past, the focus of spirituality in healthcare was geared towards the patient’s experience; little attention was focused on the HBHPs experience. This is the first study to concentrate on the HBHPs’ negative and positive experiences (Taylor et al., 2015, pp. 91-93), and is important because it identifies areas of improvement for HCs and adjustments needed in the training
About 95% of Americans recently professed a belief in God or a higher power and 9 out of 10 people also said that they pray, most of them (67%–75%) on a daily basis (Gallup & Lindsay, 1999). The interest in spirituality and treatment has been growing, particularly for the treatment of alcoholics (Kurtz & White, 2015). Spirituality impacts how clinicians practice and patients' decision-making (Peteet, Balboni, Michael, 2013). Mindfulness, a spiritual practice has been shown to enhance clinician self-care and equanimity (Peteet, Balboni, Michael, 2013). Understanding how different ethnic groups view themselves in terms of spirituality can aid treatment providers in their cultural competence and in their decision-making regards to the type of treatment.
Leslie thank you; this is a great tool. SPIRIT is an in-depth tool it can reveal a wealth of information just by completing the form. Spirituality can be a source of comfort for many people. This tool can help prevent spiritual distress which could hinder a patient's progress (Black, 2014). Spiritual practices encourage greater mental and physical health; therefore, physical activities should be promoted if it is beneficial to the patient's health (Weber & Kelly, 2014). For instance, if a Muslim patient is admitted there are religious and spiritual needs that the patient would like the nurse caring for them to know. Such as no meal that contains pork or alcohol, to make time in between care for prayers, if terminal religious practices that
In my personal standpoint, I believe the spiritual care involves an attempt to establish a kind connection with the patients to know their personal history, their values, their religious beliefs and their spiritual needs. All of this can be encircled in a complete nursing assessment that incorporates the spiritual assessment of the patients. I agree with the lecture that sometimes the care of the spiritual needs can be made with a gentle service to be the companion of those in suffering or the attentive listening of their stories. In a Christian model, the spiritual care is focused on encouraging the patients to organize their beliefs with the objective to rebuild their damaged interaction with God (Miller, 2006). I believe some patients recall
Additionally, the use of the Bible in therapy has shown to assist those who are struggling with religion and spirituality. Placing value on spiritual aspects has the potential to improve mindfulness and to deepen its benefits. The use of religion in treatment has shown improvements in areas like stress and worry and is linked to increased patient fulfilment as well as assisting those who are struggling with their
A fulfilling, healthful life is a direct result of our personal faith and how we care for ourselves. Research proves there is a connection between living a life of faith, being healthy and therefore being able to heal successfully. Any effective treatment has to address the whole person; mind, body, and spirit, and not just “the colon cancer in room four-eighty” (Koenig 65). Moreover, as important as it is for doctors and caregivers to treat the whole person, “A joyful heart is the health of the body, but a depressed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22) so ultimately our spirit and positivity is key to our personal triumphs and successes. While faith is definitely an important aspect in our acceptance of health setbacks and our general outlook on life, the West has not embodied or encouraged the connection between the body, the spirit, and the environment anywhere to the extent that East has. America is in need of a paradigm shift away from the culture of treatment instead of prevention, pill popping to alleviate symptoms, and the dehumanizing affects of technology to treat, and towards the idea of whole body healing incorporating spirituality and the church, the support of caring doctors, and most importantly our personal health and the role we play in helping ourselves heal.
Religion and Spiritual concepts are more frequently being used in therapeutic settings. Previously these concepts were isolated, or left unspoken. To maintain the integrity of the patient and clients