Hospice Chaplains Take Up Bedside Counseling

Primary Author: Paul Vitello, New York Times

New York Times article from October 2008 covering the growth in hospice chaplaincy services in recent years. Discusses what hospice chaplains do and how the field has changed.

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

At end of life, Baylor team fights the current, sometimes loses

Primary Author: Lee Hancock, Dallas Morning News

Part of a Dallas Morning News series on efforts to improve end-of-life medical care, this article covers efforts to ease suffering at the end-of-life at the Baylor University Medical Center. Included is a video in which Dr. Robert Fine and nurse Min Patel of the palliative care team discuss how to bring healing to patients and families at the end of life.

Baylor team helps families understand death, face it together

Primary Author: Lee Hancock, Dallas Morning News

Part of a Dallas Morning News series on efforts to improve end-of-life medical care, this article describes a Baylor University Medical Center palliative care team's efforts to help patients and families face the end of life. Included is a video chronicling the story of one of their patients and her family.

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.