Spiritual needs assessment of patients

Spiritual Needs Assessment of a Patient

For the recovery of any patient, especially those with terminal illnesses, there is a need to have a wholesome recovery which does not only dwell on the medicinal administration but also of the soul through spiritual nourishment. This will ensure they get out of the hospital with renewed strength and faith and hope for a better life in the future. This can only be achieved through having a thorough spiritual assessment of the patient and knowing exactly what to prepare to touch on spiritually about the patient. The following questionnaire is instrumental in ensuring this.

Please answer the following questions with voluntary information, as comprehensively as possible.

What is the pillar of your faith that helps you have meaning in life?

How significant is your faith in the above to your life in general?

Do you belong to some religious or spiritual group? Which one is it?

Do you use prayer in your life style?

How do you express your spirituality?

6. Briefly describe your philosophy of life.

7. Which is the single most desired spiritual/religious support that you desire?

8. Please write underneath the name of your pastor/chaplain/rabbi/clergy/minister.

9. What does your current illness mean to you?

10. In your own perspective, what does dying mean to you?

11. What are your spiritual goals that you seek to pursue each day?

12. Do you have a central role in your religious gathering like church/mosque/synagogue?

13. How has this illness affect your family?

These are the pertinent questions that can be used to come up with an analysis of the needs of the patient hence be in a position to tackle these needs and help the client recover from the spiritual fatigue that he may suffer during the sickness period and help shape the life of the individual after the sickness period and even help the family back at home.

Assessment findings

After carrying out a spiritual needs assessment of one of my patients suffering cancer, there are various issues that came up that were worth noting. The patient never had a definite place where he was permanently attached to for spiritual nourishment despite having strong belief in Christianity, God and Jesus Christ. The patent did not as well have a strong belief in the spiritual intervention in his situation and never associated the faster healing to the spiritual situation around him but on medication and chance.

The patient was noted to express his spiritual lifestyle by doing good to others and helping everyone he can possibly help. The prayer life was noted to be centered on the normal general prayers that are carried out through family prayer sessions that are conducted occasionally.

He also takes dying as a normal process that fate brings on the path of everyone and does not have any hopes that this can be changed and made better once fate has directed it at someone. Bearing the aloof stand he has towards religious activities, he does not play any central role in the church or any other spiritual gathering. The patient believes his suffering has just affected the family in as far as his physical absence and inability to provide is concerned and not the spiritual disposition of the family members.

There are several discoveries that I made about my patient in this case. The central thing was that in as much as the person believed in the existence of the deity, he believed that the ultimate well being is derived from doing what helps people around us and ensuring the world around us is a better place. The patient did not have s deep inclination toward spiritual beliefs and works of the spiritual capabilities.

Due to the stand he had, the patient also never valued much the church hence never even knew the name of the pastor of the church that he occasionally attends. There is a sense of desperation that was also noted in the patient since the illness is terminal and being that no man can help him out of the condition and he does not believe strongly in the supernatural intervention.

There are various issues that went well during the assessment of the patient. On of the central aspects was the fact that the patient was free to open up and share the spiritual disposition that he was in and even share the. The patient was also in a position to give further details that involved personal family life issues that enabled me to better assess his spiritual needs as well as act as an indication that I had won his confidence, this was a good sign in gathering information from the patient through the questionnaire, and further while discussing the questionnaire with him.

There are several issues that I would do differently, especially while dealing with patients of the same nature as was my patient here. First I would go straight to using the interview method as it seems to produce more information and as well expresses empathy with the patients' conditions rather than a questionnaire. This is from the fact that I was able to get further information when I went to discuss the questionnaire with the patient that I did not have through the written format. Secondly I would also increase the number of questions to be used in an interview to involve more personal questions so as to better understand the patients' spiritual needs. This is a decision based on the openness to share personal details and family details expressed by my patient, a thing that I never envisioned being possible.

There were few challenges to completion of the assessment and the outstanding one was, due to the medical condition of the patient, once in a while he would have a feeling that I do not comprehensively understand what he is going through, especially when I further questioned some decisions or positions he had. I will, in the future, refrain from combating the respondents on their stands and instead seek to understand their positions through framing other subsidiary questions to what I would like to question.