...Spiritual Needs Assessment According to Potter and Perry (2009), one’s awareness of inner self and having a sense of connection to a higher being is the meaning of spirituality. Spirituality is a force that provides a person with intrinsic energy that promotes and enhances their well-being. It also helps a person achieve the balance needed to cultivate a positive life and to cope with everyday life stressors (Potter & Perry, 2009). Florence Nightingale believed that spirituality within a healing hospital environment, and caring for an individual’s spiritual needs is just as important as caring for their physical needs (Potter & Perry, 2009). Spiritual assessment is defined as the process from which health care providers identify a patient’s spiritual needs related to their mental health care (Spiritual Competency Resource Center, n.d.). In 2005, as evidence-based research demonstrated a correlation between supporting a patient’s spirituality with their health and their ability to cope with an illness, The Joint Commission (TJC) announced the requirement for health care organizations to include “a spiritual assessment as part of the overall assessment of a patient to determine how the patient’s spiritual outlook can affect his or her care, treatment, and services.” (p. 1). Patients deserve the best holistic care from health care providers, and it is through a spiritual assessment upon admission that providers will be guided to providing such care. Introduction And Spiritual...
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...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...
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...SPRITUALITY NEED ASSESMENT Spirituality Need Assessment Elsamma Philip Grand Canyon University HLT- 310 V Verree Laughlin June 10, 2012 Spirituality Need Assessment Introduction Numerous studies conducted showed positive correlation between spirituality and treatment outcomes (Oakley, P.T., D.H.Sc, Katz, Sauer, Dent, & Millar, 2010). Therefore spiritual needs of the patient must be meet by the healthcare professional. The spiritual needs of the patient can be analyzed and recognized in the process of spiritual assessment. The spiritual assessment consists of a survey/ questionnaire that helps the caregiver get information on the patients spiritual demands. The spiritual assessment allows the healthcare provider to meet the spiritual demands of the patient and their family. This enables the patient to receive holistic treatment which includes recognizing and responding to the physical, psychological, spiritual and emotional needs of the patient (Bruce, 2007). According to the joint commission anyone who is trained on the value of spiritual assessment and tools such as physicians, therapists, nurses, and clinical pastoral staff can assess the patient’s spirituality (Evaluating your Spiritual Assessment Process, 2005). The Joint Commission has also provided some guidelines to create a spiritual assessment that would meet the spiritual demands of the patient. Using these guidelines, a spiritual assessment is made to assess the spiritual needs...
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...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 easy to use and provides details on a wide range of aspects related to multicultural beliefs. The HOPE Questions is not supported by research thereby it is not valid or reliable. Key Words: spiritual assessment, FICA Spiritual Assessment Tool, HOPE Questions Spiritual Assessment Taking patients spiritual needs into account is an integral component of providing holistic care. Research has linked positive health outcomes with patients whose spiritual needs have been addressed. However, spirituality is not always considered an important part of a patient’s well-being; leading to spiritual assessments not being completed. To aid in addressing a patients spiritual needs, there are spiritual assessment tools available. Some of the tools available...
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...Spiritual needs Assessment Punnackal house Jolly Grand Canyon University Spirituality in Health care HLT-310V May 1, 2011 Spiritual needs Assessment Spirituality is a sensitive subject, and not everyone is open to discussing one’s beliefs. How well a patient discusses their spirituality is somewhat dependent on the nurse. A caring empathetic nurse is more likely to develop and maintain a holistic rapport and trust with patient. However, their involvement is essential in promoting spiritual health among patients. The difficulty nurses face in implementing spiritual care with patients starts with their incorrect interpretation of the concept of spirituality. Spirituality is defined as an experience that a person has had that gives purpose and meaning to life and death; it may or may not include relationships with God, or other divine power. The key emphasis on a spiritual assessment is to be able to obtain patient information regarding spiritual health in order to plan nursing care. . Individualized plan of care and increased interaction with patients will make a great impact on patient’s care which will increase the self-esteem of the patient, and allow them to return to productive life style. “Meeting patients’ spiritual needs” is a medical professional duty as defined by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (Bensing, 2000). In 2001 JCAHO revised its accrediting standards and it is mandatory to do the spiritual assessment of...
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...Running head: SPIRITUAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT Spiritual Needs Assessment Daljit Kumari Spirituality in Health Care Home Grand Canyon University HLT- 310V February 23rd, 2014 This essays purpose is to finalize the spiritual needs assessment of a person that is to be selected to regulate his/her spiritual needs. Religion as well as spirituality do not contain the same definition, although they have been utilized regarding many opportunities. “The primary purpose of a spiritual assessment is to identify a need in the patient and formulate a care plan (Power, 2006, p. 17)”. This assessment plays an essential role within the patient’s care and assessment. The experience of health care is also something that can become as progressing or positive as for a patient as they can give and receive spiritual support that is satisfactory. This assists in promoting the health of a patient, preventing sickness or illness for example anxiety or depression, and to also assist patients to deal with difficulties in times during sickness. A spiritual assessment tool to gain a guide assistance for the health care professionals to cope and embrace the patient’s spiritual needs will be discussed in this paper by the author. According to “(Joint Commission, 2005), the main purpose of the spiritual assessment should be to identify the patient’s needs, hopes, resources, and possible outcomes regarding spirituality (p. 6)”. The best holistic...
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...Spirituality Need Assessment Introduction Numerous studies conducted showed positive correlation between spirituality and treatment outcomes (Oakley, P.T., D.H.Sc, Katz, Sauer, Dent, & Millar, 2010). Therefore spiritual needs of the patient must be meet by the healthcare professional. The spiritual needs of the patient can be analyzed and recognized in the process of spiritual assessment. The spiritual assessment consists of a survey/ questionnaire that helps the caregiver get information on the patients spiritual demands. The spiritual assessment allows the healthcare provider to meet the spiritual demands of the patient and their family. This enables the patient to receive holistic treatment which includes recognizing and responding to the physical, psychological, spiritual and emotional needs of the patient (Bruce, 2007). According to the joint commission anyone who is trained on the value of spiritual assessment and tools such as physicians, therapists, nurses, and clinical pastoral staff can assess the patient’s spirituality (Evaluating your Spiritual Assessment Process, 2005). The Joint Commission has also provided some guidelines to create a spiritual assessment that would meet the spiritual demands of the patient. Using these guidelines, a spiritual assessment is made to assess the spiritual needs of a friend who is currently a healthcare provider. Spiritual Need Assessment Tool 1) Who or what provides the patient with strength and hope? 2) Is there a role...
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...Spiritual Needs Assessment Grand Canyon University Spirituality in Health Care HLT-310V January 11, 2013 Spiritual Needs Assessment Spirituality plays an important role in people’s life and there is a correlation between spirituality and health outcomes. Health is a complete state of harmony of the body, mind and spirit. So taking care of patients’ spiritual need is as important as physical needs. Importance of spiritual care over physical care can also be seen in the bible verse “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come” ( 1 Timothy 4:8, Holy Bible). One of the studies by Dr. Anandarajah & Dr. Hight (2001) has shown that 94 percent of patients believed that their spiritual health is as important as physical health and 77 percent of patients wanted their health care provider to assess their spiritual needs when admitted in the hospital. Joint Commission also requires the hospitals to include spiritual assessment as part of the overall assessment of the patient . Joint Commission does not provide with an assessment tool, but provides with certain guide lines for creating assessment tools depending on the organization and type of patients served. Using these guidelines the author develops an assessment tool and completes spiritual assessment on one of the patient in her hospital, to identify the needs, hopes, resources and possible outcomes regarding spirituality and determine appropriate...
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...head: SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT EVALUATION Spiritual Assessment Evaluation Steven Atilano Grand Canyon University August 18, 2012 Spiritual Assessment Evaluation Spirituality has been part of nursing from its’ infancy. Initially, nursing care of the sick, was provided by monks as part of a religious order. Florence Nightingale who is credited with revolutionizing modern nursing was said to have chose the profession, because God called her to serve (Nursing-Theory.org, n.d.). Nightingale was the first to revolutionize this thought process, as she realized that healing was holistic, and even involved the patient’s environment. As a result, our profession now recognizes the need to treat the patient holistically, to include the patient’s spirituality. Two examples of assessment tools that assess spirituality are the HOPE assessment tool and the FICA spiritual assessment tool. The HOPE assessment tool uses the acronym to remember all elements of the assessment. H stands for hope, O stands for the patient’s organized religion. P stands for personal spirituality, and E stands for end of life decisions (LaRocca-Pitts, 2009). The FICA spiritual tool acronym stands for Faith or belief, Importance of the patient’s spirituality, their individual spiritual community, and Addressing spirituality (Borneman, Ferrell, & Puchalski, 2010). The author believes that patient spirituality should be assessed immediately in order to ensure holistic care, so a new spiritual assessment...
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...Spiritual Needs Assessment William Cline Grand Canyon University: HLT-310V Spirituality in Health Care June 30, 2012 Introduction In this paper the writer presents a spiritual assessment tool developed to obtain a quick guide to help the health care worker understand the patients spiritual and/or religious needs. It is hoped by this writer that the tool will enable the health care worker to treat the patient in a holistic manner. In the following paragraphs the writer outlines the assessment tool and the answers given by a co-worker, which filled out the questionnaire as if they were a patient. This writer then will outline how well, or how poorly, the assessment tool helped guide the treatment of the patient. A Spiritual Screen, History, or Assessment The first step in doing a spiritual assessment starts by knowing why we need to do one. In a non-formal survey taken by this writer, about ninety percent of this writers co-workers said they did not think most patients wanted spirituality and/or religious issues addressed during their hospitalization. This answer is drastically different than the answers given by patients in many recent studies. An article from the Joint Commission says: in one study, a majority of patients polled indicated that they want their primary care givers to ask whether patients have spiritual or religious beliefs that would influence their medical decisions and/or treatments if they became gravely ill. And in...
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...Developing a Spiritual Assessment Toolbox A. Wilmer Developing a Spiritual Assessment Toolbox Summary When a client’s spirituality is an active component of his belief system and culture, assessing his quality of life from a mental health perspective would not be complete without an accurate assessment of his spiritual needs (Hodge, 2005). Experts are stating that a holistic approach to counseling incorporates both psychological and spiritual assessments (Hodge, 2005). The accrediting body of hospitals, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), recognizes the importance of spiritual assessments and recommends that health care providers conduct these assessments to understand their clients’ religious beliefs and spiritual habits (Hodge, 2005). David Hodge (2005) presents a review of five qualitative assessment tools for effective analysis of a client’s spiritual and cultural wherewithal. The design of these assessment tools gives a more definitive construction of a client’s worldview for the purposes of integrating spiritual beliefs and attitudes in the therapeutic process and discharge planning (Hodge, 2005). Hodge asserts that this form of assessment allows the healthcare professional to explore a client’s “spiritual strengths that might be used to ameliorate problems or cope with difficulties” (Hodge, 2005, para. 1). The five qualitative assessment tools offered by Hodge (2005) provide a detailed description and comparison of each tool...
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...of a Spiritual Needs Assessment Sheila Hale Grand Canyon University Spirituality in Healthcare HLT-310V-0104 August 3, 2014 Analysis of a Spiritual Needs Assessment Spirituality is an important aspect of providing holistic care to patients. The word spiritual is derived from the Latin root, spiritus, which means breath or life. According to Bryson (2013), spirituality is an inherent predisposition toward the search for meaning or value in life. Spirituality may mean different things to different people. The Joint Commission, the governing body that provides accreditation to hospitals, requires a spiritual assessment to be performed as part of the overall assessment of patients. The goal is determine if a more comprehensive assessment is needed, and whether the patient’s spiritual view has the potential to affect health outcomes (The Joint Commission, 2005). It is well established that spirituality can have a positive effect on patient outcomes, such as providing coping abilities when faced with illness. “Studies generally support the hypothesis that spirituality is correlated with favorable health outcomes” (Anandarajah & Hight, 2001, p. 85). This paper will analyze a spiritual assessment performed and provide a summary of the assessment interview. Any significant discoveries about the individual, barriers, and/or challenges to the assessment will be discussed. It will also describe the experience and provide feedback on the use of the spiritual tool and...
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...significant role in their healing and overall health, and most of the patients want their physicians to address their spiritual needs (Tanyi, McKenzie, & Chapek, 2009). To incorporate spiritual care into patients’ care few points should keep in mind. Discerning instances for overt spiritual assessment: this is the initial step in integrating spiritual care into the practices, it is to master how to detect and assess patients’ spiritual needs (Tanyi et al., 2009). Sometimes waiting for the patient to bring up the topic can smooth the way for them to address spirituality. Displaying a genuine and caring attitude: showing a nonjudgmental and caring attitude can lead to better success (Tanyi et al., 2009). Encouraging...
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...when a patient endorses spirituality as an important factor in life, then no materialism or any other needs would complete the aspect of the spiritual need. Health care workers have a duty to accommodate patients’ spiritual needs in order to heal the whole person (Anandarajah, & Hight, n. d.). This paper shows how one can develop a survey tool to assess the spiritual needs of a patient and also analyzes the interview experience. Questions including the achievement of the interview and strategies that could be changed to make it a better experience are answered in order to enable the healthcare worker attend to the patient spiritual needs. Analysis of the Interview Experience...
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...Spiritual Needs Assessment of Patients by: (student’s name) (course) (date of submission) Spiritual Needs Assessment of the Patient In providing basic health care in hospitals, medical practitioners should not only focus on giving physical treatment to patients but also provide spiritual and psychological assessment and management for them. This practice as suggested by many studies (see Chapman, 2003; Eberst, n.d.,) can help the hospitals develop a new method of healing that is more holistic in approach. The Joint Commission (2005) recommends spiritual assessment program which can help the medical officers to know the needs of the patients aside from the usual physical treatment. It will help them gather information about the spiritual needs of the patient which can then be used to form a new framework that will address such needs and some related issues (Joint Commission,2005, p. 6). Assessing the spiritual state of a patient is not simply about asking them a series of specific questions about their faith or beliefs in life. Patients’ spiritual well-being touches matters that may be delicate to talk about with the patient. The process requires effort and adequate understanding of the reasons behind the assessment activity from the assessor. The task carries specific values that the assessor should acquire before conducting the activity. Such values include being polite in asking the patient and being careful in choosing the words that...
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