Spiritual assessment
Assessment summary
According to the assessment that was carried out on one of the cancer patients, he had strong spiritual belief in God. He believed that God was with him even at that time when he was ailing (Koenig, 2002). This patient had several spiritual goals that he wished to achieve at the end of his life. Some of these goals were short term and others were long term. According to this patient, he wanted to become closer to God every day through prayer and advancing his faith through readings the teachings of the Holy Bible. This patient believed that his conditions could be a part of test whereby God was testing his faith and, therefore, he wanted to be closer to God at that time so that he could not fall into the temptation of deserting God (Koenig, 2002). The patients also said that he had his daily spiritual practices that he carried out every day and this included praying in the morning, before meals, and in the evening. This was as a way of communicating to God and thanking Him. The patients also said that he was ready to adjust his faith for purposes of treatment and there was nothing wrong with that. He believed that talking to God contributed to his healing because he got hope that he would get well. This was comforting to him. As a nurse, I realized that his condition was not very bad and he was always a happy patient. He attributed this to his faith that God was with him at that particular time. This patient also said that he believed that God was in control of everything that was happening to him. He said that the belief that God is in control keeps one in a relaxed mood, which even facilitated healing (Koenig, 2002).
Significant discoveries
Some of the significant discoveries were that the patient was in a more stable condition that the other because of his spiritual belief (Larson, 2003). According to the assessment that I carried out, the patient was spiritually healthy and his faith did not hinder treatment but it instead facilitated healing, good interaction with the staff and even positive response to the treatment he was being offered. This was possible because the patient appreciated the role of the staff that was attending to him and also appreciated his faith and was able to balance the two. The other discovery that I made was that the patient was using statements that depicted his strong spiritual belief and he was also flexible in allowing spiritual assessment to be carried out (Larson, 2003).
What went well?
During the assessment, the patient was very cooperative and participative. He was open to answering the questions asked and also asked numerous questions which provided a chance to acquiring more information about the spiritual well being of the patient (Larson, 2003). The patients was also positive in that he appreciated that different people had different believes and that did not keep him from holding on to his own belief. This made it possible for him to express himself about his own beliefs freely and clearly (Larson, 2003).
What would be done differently in the future?
There are a number of things that could be done differently in the process of spiritual assessment and this includes providing the right environment for spiritual assessment so that the information collected can be quality whereby the officer carrying out the assessment can be able to acquire verbal and non verbal information (Larson, 2003). The environment should also be conducive and with minimum distractions for accuracy. This makes it possible to acquire quality data and thus determining the spiritual wellbeing of a patient accurately (Larson, 2003).
Barriers to the completion of the assessment tool and how they would be addresses in future
The barriers encountered in the assessment include lack of proper training (Graber & Johnson, 2001). This is makes it very challenging to acquire accurate information and this in turn affects the spiritual assessment results. Poor training can even lead to resistance by the patient when they realize that the personnel carrying out the assessment does not know exactly what they are doing. To address this issue, spiritual assessment training should be carried out to all the staff in nursing care centers. This is because the spiritual assessment is taken to be multidisciplinary. The other barrier was lack of enough time to carry out the assessment. This does not allow the staff carrying out the assessment to collect enough information from the patient. Adequate time should therefore be allocated to spiritual assessment session for patients (Graber & Johnson, 2001).
Spiritual experience with the patient
The interaction with the patient provided information that the patient appreciated the spiritual beliefs of other people and this enabled one to be open and understand that different people have religious and spiritual beliefs (Graber & Johnson 2001). One is also able to concentrate entirely on the spiritual issues of the patient without trying to use their own beliefs on the patient. This tool enables the person carrying out the assessment to give the patient to express him or herself because the questions are open-ended. Therefore, the patient is free to express themselves in whatever way they want (Graber & Johnson, 2001).
References
Graber D., & Johnson J. (2001). Spirituality and healthcare organizations. Journal of Healthcare Management, 36, 39–52.
Koenig, H.G. (2002). Spirituality in patient care. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation.
Larson K. (2003). The importance of spiritual assessment: One clinician’s journey. Geriatric Nursing, 24(6): 370–371.
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