Spiritual Distress in Nursing Elderly Patients - Essay Example

Certain tools are required in the practice of clinics and eventually in addressing the identified needs. A study conducted by Seaman, Durbin & Seaman, (2003), demonstrated the initial progress in the establishment of clinically approved instruments for assessing spiritual distress in nursing elderly patients. An assessment concerning spirituality was conducted on patients where several questions were asked and different responses were obtained from the patient. The following is a brief summary of the assessment.

It was noted that the patient admitted to being affected by her relationship with God due to her illness. She has not been able to do things related to spirituality effectively as a result of her illness. She relates her devastation in her relationship with her family and friends as they consider her an outcast in the community. From the assessment, it was observed that the kind of ailment she was suffering was considered to infect someone who went against the culture of the community. The patient had the desire to make up with children who have since been separated from her for three months of her ordeal. She reiterated that she wish to profess her love for her children. It is apparent that the conflicts are likely to affect the medical situation where the patient is likely to die faster than anticipated.  Besides, she preferred to speak to her chaplain before she passed on, which is a request she made to the nurses to help her soul rest in peace.

The major challenge in conducting the assessment was the fact that the patient was emotional at some point. She blamed everyone in society for her current situation, her family members for abandoning her, and God for letting things happen the way they are. It was not easy to complete the entire assessment.  In the future, I intend to change the line and formatting of the questions in a way to avoid the build-up of emotions among the patients (Clark, Drain & Malone, 2003). Besides, I failed to take into consideration that this patient had reached a point of believing that God is not in control and hence He is a mean super being who lets His people suffer.  Through the assessment, I learned a few vital lessons. One of the significant things I learned was spirituality is essential to some patients while for other patients who tend to be pagans in nature, it might not help a lot. Moreover, it is one of the foundations that many nurses, doctors, and spiritual leaders must utilize to ensure success in the treatment of patients (Powell, Shahabi & Thoresen, 2003).