Providing spiritual care to cancer patients in the outpatient context: a pilot study

Abstract

The aim of this pilot study was to test an effort to provide spiritual care (SC) to oncology outpatients in the Ascension healthcare system. Medical providers referred patients who would benefit from spiritual and emotional support. Twenty-seven cancer outpatients from 5 states were enrolled in the project. Based on the chaplain assessment, 45% of the patients had moderate or severe spiritual concerns. On average patients had 4 sessions with a chaplain (range 2–9). Of the 136 chaplain sessions, 56% were in-person in the clinic and 35% were by phone. The most common chaplain activities were active listening (87% of the sessions) and demonstrate caring and concern (55%). For the 20 patients who provided follow-up data, there were decreases in all measures of religious/spiritual distress, though statistically insignificant, and a marginally significant increase (p < .054) in well-being. The study adds to the emerging literature that describes the importance of SC in the outpatient context.

Keywords:

• Cancer
• chaplaincy
• outpatient
• spiritual care

Acknowledgments

The authors express their appreciation to all the patients and staff at the cancer clinics who helped make this project possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.