Assignment: Spirituality Assessment

Assignment: Spirituality Assessment

Spirituality Assessment

Over the past decades, there has been a growing concern and attention to spiritual care in the context of palliative care. It is widely acknowledged that spiritual care is an essential aspect for a good end of life care. As such, in order to improve the performance and quality of healthcare systems for patients in Hospice, it is a requirement that medical workers deliver holistic care by incorporating spiritual assessment (Blaber, Jone & Willis, 2015). This is based on an argument that spirituality defines the existence of patients and enables them to achieve the well-being required in dealing with many challenges of life they experience. Despite a growing professional awareness about the value of spirituality in health care, medical practitioners may overlook the religious backgrounds of patients. However, with more research indicating a direct relationship between spirituality and health outcomes, healthcare providers have an obligation to support this holistic care to maintain their accreditation as per the requirement of The Joint Commission.

The Joint Commission recommends several guidelines and spiritual assessment tools to evaluate the spiritual needs of patients during care (Kruizinga et al., 2016). In this study, I choose to use FICA and HOPE tools to assess a colleague with a specific focus on palliative care. The interviewee’s name is Ms. Pratt, a nurse and a Christian at the department of oncology in the health facility I deliver my service. She is a strong believer in the healing power of faith and often encourage her terminally ill patients about eternal life. The goal of the interview with Ms. Pratt is to formulate a spiritual assessment and analyze the experience of the interviewee by asking about what went well, practices that could be done differently and identify barriers as well as suggest ways to address them.

Summary of findings from the Interview

In using the HOPE tool, the colleague provided various results. She affirmed her belief in religious strength as well as self-realization in life. Miss Pratt mentioned that Christianity Principles guide her daily actions and practices. Besides, she attested that her religious belief gives her strength to tackle challenges she experiences in life. She is part of a religious community in her locale and is a youth leader at her local church. Ms. Pratt reports that her religion allows them to have their own beliefs, learning, opportunities, and values (Benito et al., 2014). Besides, Christianity enables them to focus on human aspects such as love, kindness, chastity, care, and respect to others as well as other religious groups. In her belief, she mentions that her body is a sanctuary for God and therefore she takes responsibility to maintain it.

However, as per the FICA tool, Ms. Pratt rated faith and belief as a very important aspect of her life. This is because her faith enables her to address spiritual needs which gives her guidance on how to manage pain and all challenges about life. She affirms that her belief influence how she takes care of herself as faith gives her comfort as she recuperates after medical treatment.

A Reflection on tools most helpful in guiding nursing care

According to Kruizinga et al. (2016), spirituality and religion influence the perception, as well as the worldview of patients, and this determines their decisions on healthcare. As such, the FICA tool was the most important assessment method to determine the belief system and the perception of life for Ms. Pratt. Performing the FICA assessment takes a shorter time and allows patients to reveal a wealth of information pertaining to their health. In essence, the use of this assessment tool naturally results in other discussions about social health which enables nurses to probe patients to determine their preferences in life. Nonetheless, findings by Puchalski (2013) illustrate that the FICA tool is a more feasible tool used for clinical assessment of spirituality as opposed to HOPE. FICA tool addresses spiritual needs as well as the concerns about clinical setting for the patient. This makes the tool a critical component in enhancing the quality of life (QOL) for patients since clinicians are able to use additional insights from spiritual concerns about their clients to improve health delivery. In addition, any trained healthcare provider can readily use FICA since it provides a short history about faith and coping capability of patients with regard to a selected therapy option (Benito et al., 2014). Even though it is vital that persons administering the FICA assessment need to be health professionals, they must be conversant with the religious believes of the patients to support the latter in their medical illnesses.

Clinical situation for each tool

The HOPE tool is important for spiritual assessment of patients in primary care. The tool can be used as a source of peace, strength, and comfort for hospitalized patients in a bid to improve the quality of life. This is because the tool is patient-centered which enables healthcare providers to explore personal beliefs of patients and provide room for adjustment of therapy option (Blaber, Jone & Willis, 2015). The FICA tool, on the other hand, is used for terminally ill patients especially for those on palliative care. The assessment tool enables nurses and other health professionals to build a holistic rapport together with trust so as to obtain information that can be used for planning of care for patients with terminal illness especially those admitted in Hospice. The premise lays a foundation for spiritual reflection for patients experiencing chronic pain (Puchalski, 2013). However, spiritual assessment by using either of the tools should enable patients to identify interventions that can improve spiritual activities related to improved quality of life. For instance, the tools should explore aspects of self-care such as stress management and coping with chronic pain.

References

Benito, E., Oliver, A., Galiana, L., Barreto, P., Pascual, A., Gomis, C., & Barbero, J. (2014). Development and validation of a new tool for the assessment and spiritual care of palliative care patients. Journal of pain and symptom management, 47(6), 1008-1018.

Blaber, M., Jone, J., & Willis, D. (2015). Spiritual care: which is the best assessment tool for palliative settings? International journal of palliative nursing, 21(9), 430-438.

Kruizinga, R., Hartog, I. D., Jacobs, M., Daams, J. G., Scherer‐Rath, M., Schilderman, J. B., … & Van Laarhoven, H. W. (2016). The effect of spiritual interventions addressing existential themes using a narrative approach on quality of life of cancer patients: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Psycho‐Oncology, 25(3), 253-265.

Puchalski, C. M. (2013). Integrating spirituality into patient care: an essential element of person-centered care. Pol Arch Med Wewn, 123(9), 491-497.

 

This assignment introduces you to the spiritual concepts discussed in the next module. Identify an individual (friend or family member) willing to participate in a spiritual assessment. Use two different tools provided here, to interview the participant: the FICA tool and the HOPE tool. Share your findings in a 3 page paper along with a reflection about which tool you found was the most helpful in guiding your nursing care. Discuss what situations you would choose to use each tool.
Paper Criteria:
#1 – Identifies an individual (friend, family member) willing to participate in a spiritual assessment utilizing two different tools.
#2- Uses the HOPE and the FICA spiritual assessment tools to interview the participant. Submit findings as summary.
#3 – Provides a reflection about which tools were found to be the most helpful in guiding nursing care.
#4 – Discusses which clinical situations you would choose to use each tool.

The HOPE Questions for a Formal Spiritual Assessment in a Medical Interview

H:Sources of hope, meaning, comfort, strength, peace, love and connection

O:Organized religion

P:Personal spirituality and practices

E:Effects on medical care and end-of-life issues
H:

Sources of hope, meaning, comfort, strength, peace, love and connection

 

We have been discussing your support systems. I was wondering, what is there in your life that gives you internal support?

 

What are your sources of hope, strength, comfort and peace?

 

What do you hold on to during difficult times?

 

What sustains you and keeps you going?

 

For some people, their religious or spiritual beliefs act as a source of comfort and strength in dealing with life’s ups and downs; is this true for you?

 

If the answer is “Yes,” go on to O and P questions.

 

If the answer is “No,” consider asking: Was it ever? If the answer is “Yes,” ask: What changed?

O:

Organized religion

 

Do you consider yourself part of an organized religion?

 

How important is this to you?

 

What aspects of your religion are helpful and not so helpful to you?

 

Are you part of a religious or spiritual community? Does it help you? How?

P:

Personal spirituality/ practices

 

Do you have personal spiritual beliefs that are independent of organized religion? What are they?

 

Do you believe in God? What kind of relationship do you have with God?

 

What aspects of your spirituality or spiritual practices do you find most helpful to you personally? (e.g., prayer, meditation, reading scripture, attending religious services, listening to music, hiking, communing with nature)

E:

Effects on medical care and end-of-life issues

 

Has being sick (or your current situation) affected your ability to do the things that usually help you spiritually? (Or affected your relationship with God?)

 

As a doctor, is there anything that I can do to help you access the resources that usually help you?

 

Are you worried about any conflicts between your beliefs and your medical situation/care/decisions?

 

Would it be helpful for you to speak to a clinical chaplain/community spiritual leader?

 

Are there any specific practices or restrictions I should know about in providing your medical care? (e.g., dietary restrictions, use of blood products)

If the patient is dying: How do your beliefs affect the kind of medical care you would like me to provide over the next few days/weeks/months?

FICA Spiritual Tool

F:
Faith and belief

Do you have spiritual beliefs that help you cope with stress?

If the patient responds ”no,” consider asking: what gives your life meaning?

I:
Importance

Have your beliefs influenced how you take care of yourself in this illness?

C:
Community

Are you part of a spiritual or religious community?

Is this of support to you, and how?

A:
Address in care

How would you like me to address these issues in your health care?Assignment: Spirituality Assessment

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource