Spiritual Care; The Nurse's Role PDF

SPIRITUAL CARE; THE NURSE’S ROLE Willy C. Sarmiento “And remember every nurse should be one who is to be depended upon... she must have a respect for her own calling, because God’s precious gift of life often literally placed in her hands.” FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, 1859 In years past, spi...

SPIRITUAL CARE; THE NURSE’S ROLE Willy C. Sarmiento “And remember every nurse should be one who is to be depended upon... she must have a respect for her own calling, because God’s precious gift of life often literally placed in her hands.” FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, 1859 In years past, spiritual care was generally not considered a dimension of nursing therapeutics With the advent of the holistic health movement, however, together with the notion of holistic nursing, assessment of an ill person's spiritual needs, and in some cases the practice of spiritual care, became recognized as legitimate activities within the domain of nursing.  - The nurse and pastoral care THE provider can work together to NURSE'S assess the spiritual needs of the ROLE IN SPIRITUAL ill person and support a CARE comprehensive plan of spiritual care. Although not all nurses may feel comfortable providing spiritual care in all situations, the nurse should always be sensitive to the spiritual needs of his or her patients. NURSING INTERVENTI - Admittedly, a nurse may not ON: THE know precisely which nursing PRACTICE therapeutics to employ when OF faced with a patient experiencing SPIRITUAL spirtual need. CARE The nurse must attempt to respect and understand a patient's religious beliefs and practices, even if very different from his or her own. The nurse must take time to allow the patient to express religious, ethical, or philosophical views, as well as any fears and anxieties related to the patient's spiritual belief system. The nurse must be spiritually supportive, assisting the patient whenever it is within the realm of his or her understanding or expertise, and recognize the need to seek outside spiritual or ministerial counseling, either personally or for the patient, when the situation warrants (O'Brien, 1982) Nurses should keep 2 important principles of spiritual intervention in mind when ministering to those who are ill. First, because each person has a unique spirituality, the provision of spiritual care cannot be derived from a procedure book of orders. Second, to intervene in the spiritual needs of others the nurse must first understand his or her own spirituality or relationship to God (Fish & Shelly, 1979) Nursing Intervention in Spiritual Distress A patient's experience of spiritual suffering, or spiritual distress, may pose unique challenges for nursing intervention (Kath & Steeves 1994) Spiritual distress may be experienced by any ill person questioning the reason for his or her suffering. (Hatrrison, 1993) Defining characteristics of spiritual distress include questioning one's relationship with God, attempting to identify religious idols, guilt feelings and a variety of somatic symptoms (Heliker, 1992) Questioning the meaning and purpose of life, expressing anger toward God; refusing to participate in usual religious practices; regarding illness as God's punishment; and seeking spiritual assistance, other than usual spiritual or religious support (Tucker et. al. 1996) The nurse does not need religious training to meet the needs of a patient in spiritual distress (DiMeo, 1991) In assessing spiritual need, the nurse must determine whether he or she may provide spiritual care, such as listening and counseling or whether referral should be made to a chaplain or formally trained minister of the patient's denomination. (Duff, 1994) “WHY ?” T H AT ’ S A L L FOLKS! T H A N K YO U !