Spiritual Assessment Tool

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).

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

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

A spiritual and psychological inventory can be useful in helping someone to determine their current state of wellness. Kathleen Dowling Singh (2000) talks about how a spiritual assessment is helpful when people are close to dying as they begin to honestly and urgently examine their lives. Singh (2000) also suggests that regardless of how much time we have left to live, answering the questions in a spiritual inventory will help provide direction to our lives. The following questions were developed for this purpose and were used for an interview, the responses from the interview follows in Appendix A.

4. Hodge, D. (2001). Spiritual assessment: a review of major qualitative methods and a new framework for assessing spirituality. Social Work , 203-214

According to Hodge (2015), 2 a spiritual assessment is an in-depth look at the religious makeup of a patient with the aim of identifying the vital areas of spiritual concern and determining the appropriate planof treatment. During the interview, a 28-year-old male from a Buddhist religion was questioned. The interview process did not face a lot of difficulties with various aspects going well during the process. For instance, the interviewer quickly understood the question and did not hold back any information requisite in obtaining the right information for the spiritual needs assessment. In future, I would request the interviewer to explain and expound on the provided answers to the interview questions.

During the last week I have been observing spiritual needs of patients in the Carl T Hayden Medical center in Phoenix Arizona. A majority of the assessment was observation based and one patient was open to some questions. The assessment tool I used is a set of five questions and the tool is always preceded by observation. The assessment is based on the observation period involves looking for obvious signs of religious or spiritual activity. These signs could be religious literature in the patient possession, wearing religious insignia; such a necklace with a cross or Star of David, and noticing the activity of the chaplain rounds. My assessment is based off of the F.I.C.A

The interdisciplinary team in charge of Mr. Thompkins must take into consideration the beliefs and/or philosophies of this patient when it comes to completing the plan of care. This team must honor and respect those beliefs in all decisions made. According to the spiritual assessment performed, spiritual support is given according to the wishes and needs of the patient.

The authors of this study state the research questions: “Do oncology inpatients receive spiritual care consistent with their needs? When inconsistent, are there deleterious effects on patient outcomes?” (p. 2269, para 1). The authors argue that unaddressed spiritual needs negatively impacts hospitalized oncology patients’ outcomes, specifically depression, quality of life and satisfaction with care received.

Some barriers that may inhibit one’s ability to complete a spiritual assessment are: poor timing, lack of training, discomfort with the subject matter (patient or provider), provider’s uncertainty of own spirituality, concepts of spirituality differ among all, and a lack of clues and/or cues by the patient that may open the doors to initiate a genuine conversation (Dameron, 2005; Joint Commission, 2005). It is important the health care provider maintains a non-judgmental approach and must be careful not to impose his or her

The assessment of one’s spirituality is a very personal process. In order to assess ones’ own spirituality, they must dig deep within themselves to discover what brings them strength, peace and security. Katie Enos, an aspiring nursing student at the University of Portland opened up with us how she has assessed her spirituality, and the ways it impacts her health and influences her future are of patients as a nurse. The assessment of her spirituality began with telling us where she finds her strength.

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

Spirituality is a delicate topic, and some may not be open to talking about their beliefs. Spirituality is generally understood to be an essential aspect of being human (Lyndo-Lam, 2012). Assessing the spiritual needs of patients is a key component in the nursing process. A compassionate and thoughtful nurse can make a patient feel more secure, making it easier for him to express his spirituality. The participation of both patient and health care provider is vital in promoting spiritual health. The main focus of a spiritual assessment is to gather information regarding the patient’s spiritual needs in order incorporate them into the plan of care, so as to treat

Spirituality is considered one of the components of health and wellness, and is a contributory factor in the delivery of holistic care (O’Shea, Wallace, Griffin, & Fitzpatrick, 2011). It only makes sense for us nurses to study and research spirituality since the nursing profession is committed to holistic development, which includes the spiritual dimension of life. However, elements such as time constraints, short staffing, insufficient formal education related to spiritual assessment and confusion between spirituality and religion have led to spirituality becoming a disregarded component of care (O’Shea et al., 2011). Adolescence is a crucial time in the development of a person’s spiritual path (Benson & Roehlkepartain, 2008). Findings showed that most adolescents hold spiritual or religious beliefs already and choose to draw on them when experiencing life-changing events. Despite this information, healthcare professionals overlook the spiritual needs of adolescents (Neuman, 2011).

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