The interest in the topic of spirituality as a more or less independent dimension of quality of life is continuously growing, and research questions are beginning to change as the field of ...religiosity changes, becoming more diverse and pluralistic. Addressing new topics in health research also relies on standardized questionnaires. The number of instruments intended to measure specific aspects of spirituality is growing, and it is particularly difficult to evaluate the new instruments. This Special Issue will focus on some of the established instruments (updating them to different languages and cultures), but will also describe the features and intentions of newly-developed instruments, which may potentially be used in larger studies to develop knowledge relevant to spiritual care and practice. This Special Issue will serve as a resource on the instruments used to study the wide range of organized religiosity, the individual experience of the divine, and an open approach in the search for meaning and purpose in life.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
Numerous instruments have been developed to assess spirituality and measure its association with health outcomes. This study’s aims were to identify instruments used in clinical ...research that measure spirituality; to propose a classification of these instruments; and to identify those instruments that could provide information on the need for spiritual intervention.
METHODS
A systematic literature search in MEDLINE, CINHAL, PsycINFO, ATLA, and EMBASE databases, using the terms “spirituality" and “adult$," and limited to journal articles was performed to identify clinical studies that used a spiritual assessment instrument. For each instrument identified, measured constructs, intended goals, and data on psychometric properties were retrieved. A conceptual and a functional classification of instruments were developed.
RESULTS
Thirty-five instruments were retrieved and classified into measures of general spirituality (N = 22), spiritual well-being (N = 5), spiritual coping (N = 4), and spiritual needs (N = 4) according to the conceptual classification. Instruments most frequently used in clinical research were the
FACIT-Sp
and the
Spiritual Well-Being Scale
. Data on psychometric properties were mostly limited to content validity and inter-item reliability. According to the functional classification, 16 instruments were identified that included at least one item measuring a current spiritual state, but only three of those appeared suitable to address the need for spiritual intervention.
CONCLUSIONS
Instruments identified in this systematic review assess multiple dimensions of spirituality, and the proposed classifications should help clinical researchers interested in investigating the complex relationship between spirituality and health. Findings underscore the scarcity of instruments specifically designed to measure a patient’s current spiritual state. Moreover, the relatively limited data available on psychometric properties of these instruments highlight the need for additional research to determine whether they are suitable in identifying the need for spiritual interventions.
Because of cancer is generally perceived as a life-threatening illness, patients often develop spiritual needs upon the diagnosis. Spirituality impacts patient quality of life (QoL) and provides a ...context in which to derive hope and meaning to cope with illness. The goal of this review is to give an overview of the most relevant studies with a focus on the relationship between spiritual well being, QoL and hope in patients with cancer, in addition to exploring the importance of spiritual issues both for patients and healthcare professionals.
Spiritual well being with its dimensions of faith, meaning, and peace is a central component for the overall QoL. A strong spiritual well being decreases symptom severity, the level of hopelessness and the desire for hastened death in cancer patients. However, in the medical setting the provision of spiritual care remains poor, although patients, especially at the end of life, would like their spiritual needs to be addressed as part of the global care.
Care for cancer patients goes beyond just caring for the person's body. The assessment of spiritual/religious needs can be considered the first step in designing needs-tailored interventions.
BACKGROUND: Spirituality is an essential factor for HIV/AIDS patients. Spirituality helps a person to achieve balance, improves health, well-being, and adapt to illness. There are several factors ...related to the spiritual needs of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). One of them is the characteristic of PLWHA.
AIM: This study aimed to analyze the relationship between spiritual needs with characteristic PLWHA.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study design that included 103 PLWHA was conducted from July 2020 to August 2020 in HIV Service Clinic, Garut Regency, Indonesia. We used Spiritual Needs Questionnaire 2.1 (SpNQ 2.1) to collect the data. Chi-square was used for variable analysis.
RESULTS: The dimension of religious needs has the highest score mean = 13.51, SD = 5.434, and existence needs have the lowest score with mean = 10.49, SD = 4.752 compared to other dimensions. The Chi-square test results showed that there was a significant relationship between gender (p = 0.012) and length of diagnosis (p = 0.019) on the spiritual needs of PLWHA.
CONCLUSION: Spiritual needs have a significant relationship with the characteristics of PLWHA. All dimensions of spiritual needs become essential for people with HIV/AIDS.
Purpose
Spiritual care is an important part of healthcare, especially when facing the crisis of advanced cancer. Do oncology inpatients receive spiritual care consistent with their needs? When ...inconsistent, are there deleterious effects on patient outcomes?
Methods
Patients with advanced cancer (
N
= 150) were surveyed during their inpatient stay at a southeastern medical center using validated instruments documenting spirituality, quality of life, mood, and satisfaction with care. Relationships between the receipt of less spiritual care than desired and patient outcomes were examined.
Results
Almost all patients had spiritual needs (91%) and the majority desired and received spiritual care from their healthcare providers (67%; 68%), religious community (78%; 73%), and hospital chaplain (45%; 36%). However, a significant subset received less spiritual care than desired from their healthcare providers (17%), religious community (11%), and chaplain (40%); in absolute terms, the number who received less care than desired from one or more sources was substantial (42 of 150). Attention to spiritual care would improve satisfaction with care while hospitalized for 35% of patients. Patients who received less spiritual care than desired reported more depressive symptoms adjusted
β
(SE) = 1.2 (0.47),
p
= 0.013 and less meaning and peace adjusted
β
(SE) = −2.37 (1.15),
p
= 0.042.
Conclusions
A substantial minority of patients did not receive the spiritual care they desired while hospitalized. When spiritual needs are not met, patients are at risk of depression and reduced sense of spiritual meaning and peace. Spiritual care should be matched to cancer patients’ needs.
Complex care patients who spend extended time in hospital often have unmet spiritual care needs, including exploring questions of meaning and purpose, and benefiting from deep, humanizing ...connections. This study explored how social workers and Allied Health professionals identify and respond to the unmet spiritual care needs of these patients. It highlights the opportunities and limitations of providing spiritually-focused care within the managerial approaches that are dominant in hospital settings and provides recommendations including increased recognition of patients' spiritual care needs and training for the workers who journey with them.
Background
Around the world, spiritual care in nursing is a critical part of providing holistic care, but within our profession, there is a lack of certainty over the meaning of spirituality and ...delivery of spiritual care, including nurses thinking of spirituality as religion.
Methods
We adopted the eight‐step Walker and Avant's concept analysis approach to provide a definition of the concept, searching and analysing international and national online databases. Inclusion criterion included that articles were published between 1950 and 2012 in English or Persian language. Finally, 151 articles and 7 books were included in the analysis.
Findings
The attributes of spiritual care are healing presence, therapeutic use of self, intuitive sense, exploration of the spiritual perspective, patient‐centredness, meaning‐centred therapeutic intervention and creation of a spiritually nurturing environment. Spiritual care is a subjective and dynamic concept, a unique aspect of care that integrates all the other aspects. It emerges in the context of nurses’ awareness of the transcendent dimension of life and reflects a patient's reality. The provision of spiritual care leads to positive consequences such as healing for patients and promotion of spiritual awareness for nurses.
Implications for Nursing and Health Policy
The conceptual definition of spiritual care provided in this study can help clinical nurses, educators and nurse managers to develop and implement evidence‐based health policies, comprehensive staff training programmes and practical quality assessment guidelines to try to ensure that all nurses are competent to include relevant spiritual care in practice.
Conclusion
A comprehensive definition of the concept of spiritual care ensued. The findings can facilitate further development of nursing knowledge and practice in spiritual care and facilitate correction of common misconceptions about the provision of spiritual care.
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