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Spiritual Needs Assessment

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Submitted By ludwig623
Words 774
Pages 4
Ludwig Alvarado
HLT-302
02/27/14
Andre Mooney

Spiritual need assessment I believe that in order to assess someone’s spirituality, we as healthcare professionals need to be aware and comfortable with our own spirituality. This gives us the opportunity to care for our patients needs and develop a positive relationship with them. A spiritual assessment is an important first step and a valuable part of the healthcare process, as it incorporates consideration of a patient’s spirituality into medical practice (Skalla, 2005). I believe a questionnaire is the most efficient way to gather this information, which could be filled out by the patient or noted by the healthcare professional during observation. I developed a comprehensive questionnaire which consists of six questions that are developed to asses’ patient’s spiritual needs. I administered it to my friend (J. Nieto, personal communication, February 27, 2014). Acting as if they were my patient and I was their physical therapist. .

Question 1- What are your spiritual beliefs?
Answer – I am Christian
Question 2 - How important are your religious or spiritual beliefs?
Answer – I don’t practice my religion as much as I use to or attend church regularly, but I believe in God.
Question 3 - Do you have someone you talk to for spiritual guidance or support?
Answer - When I need to talk to someone about a problem or for guidance, I like to talk to my grandmother, she always gives me good advice and I trust her.
Question 4 - When in need to spiritual or mental clarity, do you practice prayer, meditation, reading etc?
Answer – Yes I pray when I am in a bind or if I need help with a personal problem, but I also like to meditate so I can sort things out in my own head.
Question 5 – What aspects of your spiritual beliefs would you like me to keep in mind while we are caring for you?
Answer - To treat me with respect as you would someone of your own family always letting me be informed and in charge of my own health.
Question 6 - Is there anything I can do to provide spiritual support for you?
Answer – If I need someone to talk to or pray with, you could be here for me. We don’t have to be the same religion to pray or provide spiritual support to someone. Upon completing the questionnaire I was able to gather much valuable information on my patients spiritual needs. I believe my questions are very broad and basic, allowing me to collect information on a patient without being too invasive or get too personal. I found out that my patient does not practice their religion actively, but they still hold their beliefs as an important part of their lives, even though they do not attend church regularly; they practice prayer as means of spiritual guidance and clarity. I learned that we do not have to be of the exact same belief background to be able to support one another spiritually and that regardless of spiritual beliefs we all should be treated equally in the healthcare setting and in society in general. We should not allow our own personal spiritual beliefs change the way we treat others because we don’t agree with them. The questionnaire allowed me to establish a better relationship with my patient while allowing them to express their spiritual needs. If I could make any adjustments or comments to the questionnaire that would help with challenges that might arise, I would add that patients are usually under some kind of pain or stress because of their particular ailment, thus we should have patience when asking these type of personal spiritual questions, and adjust our tone to that more of a heart to heart conversation vs. that of a questionnaire. I think most people have some sort of spiritual aspect to them, and no matter what that is, it should be respected. In healthcare we are dealing with the physical and mental wellbeing of patients, but it is important to always consider and provide support for the spiritual aspect as well, as it is in my opinion equally as important (Dameron, 2004) I believe a spiritual needs assessment is the best way to gather this information and start guiding the patient in the right direction.

References
Skalla, K. (2005). Spiritual assessment. Retrieved February 27, 2014 from http://www.new.towson.edu/sct/assessment.htm
Dameron, C. (2004, July 30). Spiritual assessment made easy...with acronyms!. Lippincott's nursing center.com. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/pdfjournal?AID=725343&an=00005217-200502000-00005&Journal_ID=&Issue_ID=
Jessica, N. (2014, February 27). Personal interview.

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