Provider Roles in Spiritual Care - Essay Example

Abstract The essay aims to address the following objectives: (1) to differentiate the different roles and requirements of organizational team members within the Healing Hospital blueprint; (2) to evaluate personal spiritual experiences/sacred encounters a provider might have with patients; and (3) to demonstrate the use of a spiritual needs assessment tool on a chosen patient population. Introduction A comprehensive plan of care considers the application of holistic health care concept to expand healthcare awareness and competence in spiritual dimension (O’Brien, 2011, 138). Health care providers have the responsibility of attending to the spiritual needs of client as part of holistic care and have no right to devaluate the right of the hospital chaplain or the pastor to attend to the spiritual needs of the client even if the provider may not feel comfortable in providing spiritual care. The spiritual dimension of the client is strongly evident during illness, stress, difficulties, and end-life-care when people strongly needed the direction and comfort derived from their spiritual preferences. Faith and religion are essential components of a client’s spiritual dimension and health provider has the responsibility to have self-awareness of one’s spiritual preferences before integrating a non-biased spiritual care. In order to address a holistic care, the healthcare team must involve the participation of multi-faith chaplain professionals to assist healthcare team members in providing specific cultural, religious, and faith needs of clients and families. Spiritual care is the most difficult task of a provider, specially the nurses. Most of the nurses lack adequate training for spiritual care giving and may influence the provision of adequate spiritual care. Healthcare providers such as nurses need to have formal education training or graduate programs in pastoral counseling or ministry in order to provide an excellent and competent spiritual care and to refer clients to other spiritual care providers as needed. Roles and Requirements of Organizational Team Members within the Healing Hospital Organizational team members such as the Baptist Healing Trust aim to further the work of non-profit agencies in providing health services to vulnerable populations in Middle Tennessee (Baptist Healing Trust, 2010, n. p.). Members of the Baptist Healing Trust heal with love and compassionate care in accordance with the Christian tradition. In addition, staffs of the Baptist Healing Trust have the role of reiterating the importance of meeting health needs, providing human services, and balancing of excellence in skill and great compassion. The Baptist Healing Trust operates as a funding agency and requires partnership with the staff of non-profits to raise the standard of compassionate care. The Baptist Healing Trust also offers retreats, workshops, and consultation for organizational and culture change to continue the delivery of spiritual and health services to the vulnerable and underserved population of Middle Tennessee. The Baptist Healing Trust is the organizational team member of Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. The organization believed that true healing comes from deep compassionate care and charitable health care expressed through the preservation of humanity and dignity of each human being as a creation of God (Baptist Healing Trust, 2010, n.p.). The emergence of the healing hospital in Baptist Hospital follows the teachings of Jesus and the Good Samaritan. A hospital institution does not only prevent and cure diseases but also enriched the heart and spiritual needs of client. Spiritual health provider must have a servant’s heart that offers compassionate care, goes beyond the box to meet people’s needs, has commitment to organization’s values, mission, and vision, and expressed care in a continuous chain of light from care giver or provider to every patient, fellow caregiver, and one's self. Joint Commission Guidelines in Assessing and Evaluating Spiritual Needs of Patients The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (2005) requires organizations the inclusion of spiritual assessment in the over-all assessment of client in order to determine the relationship between the client’s spiritual outlook, care, treatment, and services (p. 6). In addition, the spiritual assessment will also determine further and in-depth assessments as needed. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations does not specify needs to be included in spiritual assessment. Instead, organizations and institutions define the content and scope of spiritual assessments and the qualifications of the individual(s) performing the assessment (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2005, 6). Spiritual assessment involves one’s spirituality and religious affiliation. Staff members conducting spiritual assessments might encounter barriers for effective spiritual assessment such as poor timing, lack of training, and discomfort with the subject matter (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, 2005, 6). In order to foster a successful spiritual assessment, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (2005) addressed different approaches to determine spiritual assessment content. These includes: determining the need of the staff to ask direct questions about spirituality and the different support systems, prayer, spiritual goals, religious or spiritual resources used to cope with challenges, and beliefs about life and illness; encouraging the use of pneumonic device such as HOPE (Hope, Organized religion, Personal spirituality and practices, and Effects on medical care); training of staff for further indicators of problems related to spiritual dimension; and conducting spiritual assessment in a timely manner (6-7). Spiritual Needs Assessment Tool In 2008, the Joint Commission devised spiritual assessment tools designed to address the needs of the patient and family. Outlined below are the lists of questions representing all the elements of a comprehensive spiritual assessment: Who or what provides the patient with strength and hope? Does the patient use prayer in their life? How does the patient express their spirituality? How would the patient describe their philosophy of life? What type of spiritual/religious support does the patient desire? What is the name of the patient's clergy, ministers, chaplains, pastor, and rabbi? What does suffering mean to the patient? What does dying mean to the patient? What are the patient's spiritual goals? Is there a role of church/synagogue in the patient's life? How does your faith help the patient cope with illness? How does the patient keep going day after day? What helps the patient get through this health care experience? How has illness affected the patient and his/her family? Health care institutions and organizationsare not required to follow the spiritual assessment tool designed by the Joint Commission. As stated earlier, institutions and organizations have the right to specify the content and scope of their spiritual assessment tool to meet the needs of the client. Practice Spiritual Assessment Survey Utilizing the Spiritual Needs Assessment Tool from the Joint Commission, I have included five questions in a spiritual assessment survey done with a friend. This friend is suffering from leukemia and based on the spiritual assessment, I found out that faith in God and support of family members has given her strength and hope in fighting leukemia. She also stated that it was during the time that she was diagnosed with leukemia that she realized the importance of praying and asking for help of the Divine Almighty. She said that dying is inevitable most specially with her condition but she was ready to face it for she believe that when death comes, God would be there to hold her hand and take her to the promise land. The first time she knew her condition, there was self-denial and anger of why these things are happening to her. But as she went through with all the sufferings and hardship, she began to accept the inevitable death as sufferings are given by God to make you stronger and to deepen your faith onto God. My friend stated that her illness has made her and her family closer to God and that it also strengthened their family ties. I had found out that one’s spiritual belief keeps a person stronger to face all the struggles (Delaune & Ladner, 2006, 470). This is what I’ve noticed as I interview my friend. I also observed that the interview went well because of the continuous support from her family. In the future, I would interview a person who has everything in life to determine how the spiritual belief of a dying person differs from those who have a perfect life. Since the interview involved my friend, discomfort with the subject matter related to emotional affiliations was the barrier that I encountered. In the future, I will undergo formal training to put professional boundaries and deal with spiritual assessment effectively. In general, the experience was overwhelming and challenging and has made me to understand life from the client’s deeper perspectives. References Delaune, S.C. & Ladner, P.K. (2006). Spirituality. Fundamentals of Nursing Standards and Practice (3rd ed.) (p. 468-479). New York: Thomson Delmar Learning. O’Brien, M.E. (2011). Spiritual Care: The Nurse’s Role. Spirituality in Nursing: Standing on Holy Ground (4th ed.) (p. 137-160). Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC. Baptist Healing Trust. (2010). In What We Do/About Compassionate Care.Retrieved on August 13, 2011, from http://www.baptisthealingtrust.org/about-us/what-we-do Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (2005 February). Evaluating your Spiritual Assessment Process. Joint Commission: The Source, 3 (2), 6-7. Retrieved on August 13, 2011, from http://www.pastoralreport.com/archives/spiritual.pdf The Joint Commission. (2008). In Spiritual Assessment. Retrieved on August 13, 2011, from http://www.jointcommission.org/standards_information/jcfaqdetails.aspx?StandardsFAQSt=290&StandardsFAQChapterId=29 Read More