Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, Second Edition

Primary Author: National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care

Developed by a consortium of organizations, the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care apply to specialist-level palliative care (e.g., palliative care teams) delivered in a wide range of treatment settings and to the work of providers in primary treatment settings where palliative approaches to care are integrated into daily clinical practice. Domain 5 of the guidelines covers Spiritual, Religious and Existential Aspects of Care.

Distress Management in Cancer: Standards and Clinical Practice Guidelines

Primary Author: Jimmie C. Holland, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

This is a slide presentation with audio Dr. Holland gave to the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS). Dr. Holland discusses why standards and clinical practice guidelines are important, describes various types of distress that occur with cancer, including spiritual distress, barriers to improving care for patients in distress, and treatment guidelines and standards for treatment.

The Essential Elements of Spirituality in the End-of-Life Care

Primary Author: Katrina M. Scott, MDiv, BCC, Massachusetts General Hospital

The National Consensus Projects Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, published in 2004, defines eight domains of care essential to palliative care clinical practice. The National Quality Forums 2006 document, A National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality: A Consensus Report, which is based on the Guidelines, identifies 38 evidence-based preferred practices for palliative care. This article demonstrates how the Guidelines and Preferred Practices may be operationalized in practice, focusing specifically on Domain 5 of the Guidelines, Spiritual, Religious and Existential Aspects of Care, which incorporates many pertinent aspects of hospice and palliative care related to addressing the spiritual needs of the dying patient and his or her family. In particular, the article addresses methods for assessing the need for spiritual care; methods for communicating with the patient and family about the need for spiritual care; the role of the spiritual adviser on the interdisciplinary palliative care team; the advantages of including certified chaplains on the palliative team; the need for sensitivity toward culture and religious diversity in administering spiritual care; the need for specialized palliative care spiritual advisors to build relationships with community clergy; and more.

Health Care Guideline: Palliative Care

Primary Author: ICSI: Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement

Guideline to "assist primary and specialty care providers in identifying and caring for adult patients with a potentially life-limiting, life-threatening or chronic, progressive illness who may benefit from palliative care." Includes guidelines for the spiritual, religious and existential aspects of care.

Improving the Quality of Spiritual Care as a Dimension of Palliative Care: The Report of the Consensus Conference

Primary Author: Christina M. Puchalski, GWish: The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health