Evaluating your Spiritual Assessment Process

Primary Author: The Joint Commission

Two page article from the Joint Commission that discusses Joint Commission requirements for spiritual assessment. Topics include barriers to spiritual assessment, who should conduct a spiritual assessment, why assess spirituality, approaches to determining spiritual assessment content, and ensuring the competence of those conducting spiritual assessments.

From Joint Commission: The Source, February 2005, Volume 3, Issue 2.

Spirituality and Health: The Art of Compassionate Medicine

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

This 2001 article published in the journal Hospital Physician discusses:

- Issues of spirituality and religion as they relate to medical care
- Initiatives to expand the coverage of spirituality in medical education
- Spirituality in clinical practice, including the FICA tool for spiritual assessment

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

The Spirituality Index of Well-Being: A New Instrument for Health-Related Quality-of-Life Research

Primary Author: Timothy P. Daaleman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Article from the Annals of Family Medicine describing a study to test the Spirituality Index of Well-Being (SIWB) as a valid and reliable measure of spirituality in in patient populations.

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.