The Ability of Hospital Staff to Recognise and Meet Patients’ Spiritual Needs: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Objectives: We conducted an online cross-sectional survey to determine the understanding of spirituality and spiritual care among clinical and non-clinical staff caring for people with chronic and terminal conditions. Background: As health care moves towards a more person-centred approach, spiritual care has become more important in patients’ care. Recent evidence shows positive associations between addressing patient spiritual needs and health outcomes.

Methods: We administered an adapted Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale (SSCRS), used by the Royal College of Nursing, to hospital and community-care staff (n = 191) in Sydney, Australia. This survey examines perceptions of spiritual care and participant abilities to meet patients’ spiritual needs.

Results: The response rate to the SSCRS survey was 84 of 191 eligible participants (44%). Agreement was high on items describing talking to and observing patients and their loved-ones to identify spiritual needs (mean – 90%). However agreement was low concerning items describing the use of data collection tools and talking with colleagues to identify patients’ spiritual needs (mean – 43%). Participants recognised patients’ spiritual needs (mean – 86%), but when asked if they were able to meet these spiritual needs, only 13% (n = 11) stated they were always able to do so. Hence, there was strong agreement on actions for guidance and support for staff dealing with patients’ spiritual and religious issues (n = 71, 85%) and that spiritual care education and training is required (n = 64, 76%).

Conclusion: We have identified strong agreement of the importance of delivering spiritual care but uncertainty in the ability to recognise and meet spiritual needs of patients by clinical and non-clinical hospital staff. Our results also show that spiritual care training for hospital staff is now required. Therefore, evidence-based models of spiritual care education and training require further study.

KEYWORDS:

• spiritual care
• hospice care
• patient-centred care
• needs assessment

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The Friends of Greenwich Hospital and the HammondCare Foundation for their generous support; and Brittany Leggans for her help in setting up the online survey.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Philip Daniel Austin

Philip Austin is a Postdoctoral Researcher at HammondCare (a charity specialising in dementia and aged care, palliative care, rehabilitation and older persons’ mental health). Philip's academic interests centre on both chronic pain mechanisms and palliative care assessment. Philip has also worked as an osteopath in New Zealand, UK, Sweden and Australia.

Roderick Macleod

Professor Rod MacLeod is Senior Staff Specialist at HammondCare in Sydney and Conjoint Professor in Palliative Care at the University of Sydney. He has worked in specialist palliative care in England, New Zealand and Australia over the last 26 years.

Philip John Siddall

Philip Siddall is Director of the Pain Management Service at HammondCare's Greenwich Hospital in Sydney and Conjoint Professor in Pain Medicine at the University of Sydney. He is involved in the management of people with chronic pain with research interests in neuropathic pain, particularly pain following spinal cord injury, pain modulatory pathways and the spiritual dimension of pain.

Wilfred McSherry

Professor Wilfred McSherry is Professor in Dignity of Care for Older People at Staffordshire University/The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, UK; and part-time Professor at Haraldsplass Deaconess University College, Bergen, Norway.

Richard Egan

Richard Egan is a Lecturer in Health Promotion, Department of Preventive & Social Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealand. His academic interests centre on supportive care in cancer, health promotion and the place of spirituality in health and wellbeing.