Spiritual and Religious Influences on Healthcare

[gardenmum]

For my Leadership in Nursing class, I have to give a presentation to my clinical group on Religious and Spiritual Influences on Health Care. I am to give it from a leadership standpoint -- as if my peers were my co-workers.

I've pulled up a lot of articles regarding spirituality and religion and the positive effects it has on clients. My main goal is to show "my staff" the importance of assessing the client's spiritual needs and trying to address them. I'll include the facts that the Joint Commission requires organizations to include a spiritual assessment as part of the overall assessment of a patient to determine how the patient's spiritual outlook can affect his/her care, treatment, and services.

My questions to you are ... how does your hospital address your client's spiritual needs? How do you as a nurse meet those needs? Does your hospital stress the importance of this?

I appreciate ANY help or advice. This subject is very interesting but I am horrible at oral presentations and I just don't know how to approach it. Especially from a "leadership" standpoint!

Thank you!

[BookwormRN]

I work in a Catholic hospital and on our admission assessment form, there is a section that pertains to spirituality of the pt. (ie: Do you have any spiritual concerns? Would you like to see a chaplain while you are hospitalized?) We also incorporate questions in the Pain assessment (ie: do you have any spiritual beliefs in regard to pain?)

Yes, our facility stresses the importance of spiritual needs of our pts. I, as an RN let the pt lead regarding spiritual concerns. By that I mean that if a pt seems distressed, I ask them if I can help in any way. I have prayed with pts at their request. I have also sat holding my pts hand in silence, because that is what they needed at that moment. Almost always, I offer a silent prayer for my pts-especially if they are in distress. They don't know it, but I always hope that those prayers will bring them some measure of comfort and peace.

I too presented a teaching plan with "Spiritual Nursing Care" being my topic. Lots of info online-Good luck! You'll do a great job! :)

[Jules Anne]

I've worked/had clinicals in a few facilities and they all have a question regarding spirituality on the admission form. Each facility also has had a minister or some other religious leader on staff for the patients/families to speak to if necessary.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

On every admission assessment there is a section for religious and cultural needs. Questions go something like these:

1) Do you follow any religion or belief system? If yes, what?

2) Do you have any religious beliefs that affect your health care?

3) Do you have any religious beliefs that affect your dietary needs?

4) Would you like a hospital chaplain to visit during your stay?

We have chaplains in-house 24/7. They attend all traumas so as to be with the family & pt. We have a chapel that is open 24/7 for prayer/meditation and non-denom services are held weekly. Our chaplain is always involved in fetal deaths as well.

I work on mother baby, mostly happy. So there is not usually a need for a crisis chaplain visit; however, if there is a death, or a baby in NICU we remind the family the chaplain is available. Or, if they prefer, we or they can call their own clergy of whatever faith.

As a nurse, I try to take the initiative and seek cues from the patient that they have unmet spiritual needs. I take the abovementioned steps to try and have them met. If they request, I will pray with them, or if they want, I will just sit with them, as Bookworm said. Sometimes it has fallen to me to pray simply because there is no one else who speaks the language. (I speak Spanish & none of our chaplains do.) I don't mind.

I would not force anyone to do anything, but spirituality is a part of every person and I find that when I'm able to help meet a pt's spiritual need, they are most grateful.

Good luck c your project!

[queenjean]

Our admission assessment programs asks:

1. Do you have a specific religious affiliation?

2. Would you like your minister to be notified?

If yes, what is the name and phone number of your church or minister?

3. Would you like the hospital chaplin to visit you?

Edited to add:

4. Do you follow a special diet or have any dietary restrictions? This is intended to cover both allergies, personal preferences, and any religious or cultural considerations.

Additionally, we have 24 hour access to a hospital chaplin through a pager system. We will call if there is a code, or if the patient is going down hill fast and the family indicates they want someone there to spiritually guide them. Usually we look in the chart to see if the patient named a minister or church on admission. If so, we tell the family that Rev. So-and-so was named as the patient's spiritual advisor, would you like us to call (or, if the patient is able to answer questions, we ask them directly)? If no one is specified, we offer to call the hospital chaplin (who is really great).

We'll try to meet their needs. We are still a pretty small town (around 90,000). So if we have someone who is adamant they need a priest, but they aren't affiliated with a church, I just call the priest at my brother in law's church any time, day or night, and ask him to come. We can pretty much call any church and ask the minister to come, even if that patient isn't a member of the congregation. Our chaplin has contacts for most of the mainstream and not-so-mainstream religious sects, and we have a small chapel in the hospital that has a Bible, a Qur' an, and a Jewish Prayer book.

I think at this point everyone, athiest to fundamentalist, realizes how every important it is to meet a patient's spiritual needs; and also that it is a nursing concern that we try to meet however we can.