Spiritual Needs Assessment and Reflection
Write a 500-600 word analysis of the interview experience and the rest should be the spiritual needs assessment survey.
Introduction
Over eighty percent of American citizens value religion. Matters involving religion have a tendency of affecting the healthcare experience, and if patients are provided with a good spiritual environment, they may talk about spirituality with the health professionals (Koenig & Topper, 2012). This paper aims to develop a spiritual assessment tool for the interview, provide the transcript and analyze the interview. In this case, the tool developed is known as FACT and the initials stand for Faith, Active, Coping and Treatment plan.
Tool for assessing the spiritual needs of patients
The FACT spiritual assessment tool utilizes an acronym to guide physicians via a sequence of queries designed to draw out the patient’s spirituality and its probable impact on healthcare. Prior to using this tool, there is the need for physicians to put into consideration their individual faith, practices and beliefs, good and bad experiences, perspectives on healing and faith, and the capability of taking part in the spirituality of another or sharing their own. This is important since some health professionals may not view themselves as being spiritual and may thus not be willing to talk about spirituality. With that said, the FACT spiritual assessment tool is divided into four sections which focus on a person’s system of beliefs. Faith is the first part of the tool. In this section, the patient is queried about his/her beliefs. Questions may include “Who/What do you believe in?” “What kind of things do you think give life its meaning?” The second part of the assessment tool is termed “Active,” and this is the part where a person is asked to describe their current status of faith. Questions in this section may encompass “Do you consider yourself to be active in your faith now?” “Do you belong to any religious community?”The third section, which is coping, serves to identify the patient’s experiences with the illness and ways of dealing with it. Examples of questions may include: “How are you dealing with your medical condition” What is your experience with the disease, “how are your beliefs offering you comfort in this trying moment?” The last and fourth section is the treatment plan where the patient describes how he or she would like to use spirituality to tackle the issues affecting their care. An example of a question to be used in this section is “How would you like spirituality to be incorporated in your plan of care?”
The questions in the FACT tool serve to gather the patient’s spiritual history as well as seek his or her judgement. Notably, this assessment tool fits well into the position between the doctor-developed spiritual history and the usually too in-depth and complicated cleric-formulated spiritual Assessment. In a nutshell, FACT is a spiritual Assessment tool that is in line with health care; it is simple, adaptable, and focused. For instance, the healthcare provider can utilize FACT efficiently in a span of 5-10 minutes during the first visit. The healthcare professional may a take a succinct spiritual history, evaluate instant spiritual needs, and offer a suitable intervention with the aimed outcome of providing the patient with support. The intervention may encompass simply offering the patient with support and encouragement or an in-depth Assessment at that particular time or in a follow-up visit.
The interview below consists of 5 questions to be utilized as a spiritual assessment tool. The interviewee is referred to as Mrs. K, a 51 year old woman who was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer about a year ago.
Interview
What is your faith?
I am a Protestant and I make sure that I go to church every Sunday. Moreover, I attend prayer meetings on weekdays. My faith offers me hope and gives my life meaning.
Do you consider yourself active in your faith community at the moment?
I am an active member of the church and I belong to the choir. Apart from that, I am a member of a spiritual support group that offers counselling to drug addicts.
What is your experience with the disease?
Cancer has not only taken a toll on me but also on my entire family. I am always weak and cannot carry out simple activities like walking or mowing the garden. I am worried about my husband and children because I am hardly there for them. When I was first diagnosed with the disease, my family broke down, and everyone was worried about what was going to happen to me.
How are you coping with the disease?
The only thing that keeps me going is hope. I know that even in my sufferings, God is with me and He will help me get through it. My hope can be compared to a mustard seed, a tiny grain but it has a lot of potential. More so, my family and I constantly pray for my recovery, and I believe that God will one day hear our prayer and perform a miracle for me.
How would you like spirituality to be incorporated in your treatment plan?
If it is okay with you, I would like you to take some of your time to pray with me before administering any medication. Also, kindly consider inviting a cleric to share the word of God with me and pray for me on weekends.
Reflection
The interview I had with the patient went well; the conversation was very pleasant because Mrs. K was very open with me and answered all the questions I asked her in an appropriate manner. Moreover, she seemed to be very comfortable with the topic at hand and was relaxed all through the interview. The conversation took about half an hour and at times, Mrs. K would break down when she remembered the kind of suffering she was going through and the toll that it had on her family. Nonetheless, I saw hope written all over her face; she was convinced that she would beat the cancer and be able to lead a normal life. This inspired me a lot.
The greatest challenge encountered is the amount of time that was taken to finish the Assessment especially in a hospital setting where there are time restrictions. The lengthy interview could be attributed to the informality because the conversation took place in an out of hospital setting, the patient’s comfort with the topic of discussion, and the oral setting. In my opinion, a better process would have entailed the interviewee filling out the questionnaire and then evaluating it with her. This strategy would have ensured that the conversation was targeted. Another barrier is the skill and degree of comfort of the health professional in conducting this type of Assessment. Health practitioners have been trained on physical Assessment for many years but they have had little education on how to conduct spiritual Assessments. Therefore, practitioners may not be comfortable discussing religious matters with patients because of lack of education and experience.
Providers of health care often envisage intense, lengthy interventions as being necessary in offering spiritual care. On that note, the great thing about the FACT spiritual assessment tool is that it offers a questionnaire that is short and targeted and that the patient can fill. The patient and the practitioner can then review the answers together. The tools can be of great Helpance in establishing the strengths of the patient in coping with their condition, support avenues, and provide guidance in offering spiritual care to the patient. In this case, the tool Helped in determining the patient’s source of hope, discovery of prayer and clerical support as very helpful coping strategies for Mrs. K. In addition, the FACT tool gives the nurse the chance to engage the patient in a conversation that is less clinical in nature. According to McSherry, Ross & Johnstone (2010), tiny, even slight conversations offer powerful religious advantages for ill persons. In this case, tiny exchanges like taking the time to pray with the patient, arranging a clerical visit, and getting in touch with her church members could offer incredible spiritual care. In the course of conducting this spiritual assessment, I discovered that sickness intensified the spiritual needs and concerns of the patient. For instance, she blamed her illness on her past sins, and she believed that she would be healed if she focused on asking for forgiveness. This is part of the reason why she asked the hospital to arrange for a chaplain visit.
Conclusion
Carrying out a spiritual needs assessment gives practitioners information that helps them to offer better care to their patients and improve the relationship that they have with these patients. Utilizing a tool of assessment like the FACT tool offers the healthcare provider with a means of introducing a challenging subject and the chance to look into resources that may serve to improve the comfort and healing of patients.
References
Koenig, H. G., & Topper, C. J. (2012). Spirituality in Pastoral Counseling and the
Community Helping Professions. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
McSherry, W., Ross, L., & Johnstone, A. (2010). Spiritual assessment in healthcare practice.
Keswick, England: M & K.
