Student’s Name:Rachel Basulto Balido
Course Name : Advance Theoretical Perspectives for Nursing.
Patients and their loved ones now expect spiritual care to be an integral element of their treatment plans. Focusing on the whole person, rather than simply the sickness, is something that the World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized. Spirituality and spiritual care are conceptualized differently by nurses depending on factors such as their cultural background, religious affiliation, degree of education, and clinical experience. Furthermore, different nurses have diverse understandings of what spirituality is and how it relates to caring for their patients. Several researchers (Timmins et al., 2017) It has been argued that nurses who specialize in hospice and palliative care have a more complex knowledge of spirituality and spiritual care, as well as more expertise in providing this sort of care. Nurses in the Midwifery, Pediatric, and Psychiatric Units also demonstrated a heightened awareness of spirituality and spiritual care. What constitutes good spiritual care is largely a matter of opinion, and nurses’ perspectives on these matters may make a world of difference in patients’ experiences.
When someone is receiving spiritual care, they are being attended to in a way that is respectful of their spiritual beliefs and practices and tailored to their specific needs. Spiritual care is offered by a nurse if the patient’s physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being may be enhanced by the nurse’s company, careful listening, or participation in religious rituals that are relevant to the patient. Spiritual care aims to aid patients in finding their own sense of purpose in life, realizing their own creative potential, developing their faith, trusting others, experiencing inner peace and comfort via prayer, and learning to love and forgive themselves and others despite their suffering. (Timmins & Caldeira, 2017). The purpose of spiritual care is to assist patients in accepting their mortality, coping with the stress and suffering associated with medical treatment, and rediscovering their inner fortitude. Nurses with spiritual care education may better comfort their patients, help them cope with their fears, and show them how to find hope in the face of adversity in the clinical context. People receiving such treatment have the opportunity to enhance their well-being and contentment on every level of their being. In order to provide really comprehensive care, nurses must also tend to patients’ spiritual needs. There is a growing need for nurses who are sensitive to their patients’ spiritual needs.
Often, nurses fail to meet patients’ spiritual needs because they have insufficient understanding of spiritual care and a limited set of skills in providing such care. Providers of spiritual care who have had formal education in the field are more likely to meet the spiritual requirements of their patients. (Rachel et al., 2019). Few interventional studies have been conducted on nurses’ spiritual health and spiritual care, and those that have are often inconclusive. That’s why it’s so important to refine intervention strategies for enhancing nurses’ spiritual care that are backed up by solid research. A nurse’s spiritual health is enhanced and her ability to give spiritual care is enhanced via this training.
References
Rachel, H., Chiara, C., Robert, K., & Francesco, S. (2019). Spiritual care in nursing: an overview of the measures used to assess spiritual care provision and related factors amongst nurses. Acta Bio Medica: Atenei Parmensis, 90(Suppl 4), 44.
Timmins, F., & Caldeira, S. (2019). Assessing the spiritual needs of patients. Nursing Standard (2014+), 31(29), 47.
Timmins, F., Murphy, M., Neill, F., Begley, T., & Sheaf, G. (2019). An exploration of the extent of inclusion of spirituality and spiritual care concepts in core nursing textbooks. Nurse education today, 35(1), 277-282.
Jorge Abalo Redden
The idea of spirituality is constantly evolving and is related to physical health. Spirituality is no longer only for the esoteric; it is now well known for its applications or relevance in several fields, including nursing care (Hallenbeck, 2021). Nursing revolves around holistic care that includes taking care of the spiritual needs of patients. Based on research, patients may experience spiritual distress or difficulties at any point in their journey (Cukor & Kozlov, 2020). Nurses must provide spiritual care, beginning with intentional spiritual assessment whenever needed (Hallenbeck, 2021). Due to the importance of spirituality, there are tools utilized to evaluate spirituality.
One of the tools used to evaluate spirituality in nursing is FICA. The F stands for Faith and Belief, which involves questions meant to determine whether a patient identifies with any faith or belief system (Blaber et al., 2015). It is an essential question at the beginning of a nurse-patient relationship as it guides nurses on how to go about holistic care. The I stands for Importance and Influence, which involves open-ended questions to determine the value of spirituality or belief systems to a patient (Cukor & Kozlov, 2020). The level of importance has a significant impact on healthcare decisions. The C stands for Community, which is about finding out whether a patient belongs to a spiritual community. The last letter is A, which stands for Address. It is for nurses as they are urged to be competent enough to know how to deal with a patient’s spiritual issues.
The second tool used to evaluate spirituality is HOPE. The letter H mainly focuses on a patient’s sources of hope (Blaber et al., 2015). Human beings are different, and so many things give people hope. It could be friends, families, life plans, or ambitions, among other things. It is essential to determine what gives a patient hope. The O stands for Organized Religion. A nurse can ask questions to determine whether a patient is part of organized religion and what it means to them. The P stands for Personal Spirituality because some patients have personal spiritual beliefs and practices (Blaber et al., 2015). The E stands for Effects. A nurse can utilize some open-ended questions to determine the effects of an illness on a patient’s spirituality. A nurse can actively participate in a patient’s recovery process and spiritual care with the correct answers (Cukor & Kozlov, 2020). Lastly, the FAITH tool is all about diving deeper into a patient’s spirituality.
References
Blaber, M., Jone, J., & Willis, D. (2015). Spiritual care: Which is the best assessment tool for
palliative settings? International Journal of Palliative Nursing, 21(9), 430-438.
https://doi.org/10.12968/ijpn.2015.21.9.430
Cukor, D., & Kozlov, E. (2020). Systematic psychosocial and spiritual needs assessment and
management. Palliative Care in Nephrology, 178-187.
https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190945527.003.0017
Hallenbeck, J. L. (2021). Psychosocial and spiritual aspects of care. Palliative Care Perspectives,
124-154. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780197542910.003.0007
