Spiritual Care In Practice

These diverse case studies make a compelling case for the importance of effective spiritual care in healthcare and provide unprecedented insight into the essential role of the chaplain within the healthcare team. Presented alongside critical reflections and responses from professionals within chaplaincy, psychology, psychiatry and nursing, they provide an honest and detailed look into how healthcare chaplains actually work with the people in their care and reveal the vital role of narrative and imagination in effective transformative practice. From a 16-year-old with a belief that God would enable a miraculous recovery from paralysis, to an African man with a history of psychosis and depression whose cultural belief in witches complicated his treatment, to a dying Jewish man, aggressive and isolated due to his traumatic life experiences, each case includes insight into the patient's needs and chaplain's perspectives, discussion of spiritual assessments and spiritual care interventions, and accounts of significant encounters and dialogues. The nine paediatric, psychiatric and palliative case studies and reflections in this ground-breaking book will enable chaplains to critically reflect on the spiritual care they provide and communicate their work more effectively, help healthcare professionals develop a clearer understanding of the care chaplains deliver, and provide an informed perspective for those who develop policy around spiritual care and need to make the case for chaplaincy services.

Focusing on spirituality as an inherent component of effective nursing care, this text presents an unbiased view of the nature of human spirituality apart from religion. The text offers a unique interdisciplinary and inter-religious perspective—representing a range of Eastern and Western religious traditions—while addressing lifespan considerations and belief systems within the nursing process framework. Readable, interactive chapters apply the content clinically and highlight timely research on spirituality and health. Each chapter includes case studies, critical thinking questions, and personal reflection questions. Website references are also included.

This book provides practical guidance on many aspects of spiritual caregiving. It addresses many relevant topics including spiritual assessment, planning care, documentation, ethical concerns of sharing personal spiritual beliefs, and numerous approaches to nurturing the spirit. Presentation of religion as a positive factor influencing health and coping introduces readers to material in a manner that is sensitive to diverse spiritual beliefs. Two-tiered approach to assessment encourages readers to be empathetic listeners and identify spiritual need (first tier) and then, if necessary, follow up with more extensive assessment (second tier). Research Profiles boxed features provide readers with profiles of a research study conducted by a nurse on the topic of spirituality and health. One Nurse's Story boxed features illustrate a nurse's perspective of concepts and clinical examples of spiritual caregiving. For nursing professionals.

Delivers a wealth of practical information for fulfilling the spiritual needs of all patients and their families Written as a practical resource to teach nurses and nursing students, this text explores how to best address spiritual assessment and care. Spirituality, the search for meaning in life and connection to others, remains relevant to all patient interactions, and an essential component for nurses to integrate into their everyday practice. Using a multicultural and client-centered approach, chapters explore the concept of spirituality, and its relationship with religion and health to directly place spiritualty in a nursing context. Reflection questions interspersed throughout encourage the reader to analyze their own experiences with spirituality within both professional and personal contexts and affirm how a nurse’s own spirituality can influence her or his practice. Practical exercises illustrate the importance of spirituality in nursing and provide tools and means to incorporate spirituality into clinical practice. Chapters use a flexible approach that can be adapted to a variety of contexts in nursing education and practice throughout North America and beyond, applicable for self-study, traditional courses, and on-line programs. They contain a wealth of pedagogical features including case studies, discussion questions, a comprehensive bibliography, and an extensive Instructor’s Manual that provides additional direction for discussion and testing. Thirteen videos, developed by the author and available online, provide the perspectives of nursing and health care professionals, clients, and families to illustrate the main points of the text. Key Features: Delivers a wealth of practical tools for incorporating spirituality into nursing Useful for self-study, on-campus courses, and online programs Contains a variety of pedagogical features including consistent format, discussion questions, reflective exercises, case studies, Instructors Manual Applicable to nursing education and practice in North American and beyond Promotes holistic nursing practice

Encouraging a broad, compassionate, humanistic approach to spirituality, this book shows how patients' spiritual needs can be communicated well within interdisciplinary teams, leading to better patient wellbeing. This book describes the art of charting patients' spiritual perspectives in an open way that will help physicians and nurses to better direct medical care. It includes practical information on how to distil spiritual needs into pragmatic language, helping to demystify spiritual experience. Drawing on his extensive practical experience, the author also suggests key points to emphasise that will enrich chart notes for medical records, including brief, relative narratives, trusting one's own impressions, reflecting holistically on the patient's life, patient attitudes towards treatment and recovery, and describing families' opinions on the health care situation of their loved one. The book shows healthcare professionals of all disciplines how to engage in a shared responsibility for the spiritual care of their patients.

Based on information gathered from the internationally used Spiritual Needs Questionnaire, this book offers analyses of the spiritual and existential needs among different groups of people such as the chronically ill, elderly, adolescents, mothers of sick children, refugees, patients' relatives, and others. The theoretical background, specific empirical findings and the relevance of addressing spiritual needs is discussed by experts from different professions and cultural contexts. Supporting a person's spiritual needs remains an important task of future healthcare systems that wish to more comprehensively care for the healthcare needs of patients, and of religious communities to ensure that spiritual concerns of all persons, independent of their religious orientations, are met in and outside healthcare settings.

The current interest in spirituality has intensified the quest to incorporate spirituality in non-sectarian therapy. Spiritual Care and Therapy is a hands-on, up-to-date clinical guide that addresses this concern. Peter VanKatwyk explores spiritual care, from pastoral traditions to essential psychotherapies, in individual, couple, and family therapy, offering integrative perspectives. Therapy vignettes from multiple perspectives are included, as well as a wealth of diagrams and maps. His unique perspective of different helping relationships is an approach that celebrates diversity and promotes the flexibility of multiple uses of self and their respective styles of care. Part 1 describes common and pluralistic meanings of spirituality, locating spiritual care both in the ordinary experience of daily life and in professional practice. Part 2 focuses on the essentials of caring, posed in the three questions of what to know (therapy models), what to say (communication roles) and what to be (uses of self). These three core areas converge in the book’s central framework of the helping style inventory (helping relationships). Part 3 maps the contexts of care: the person situated in family and society, moving through time in rites of passage that congest when impacted by crisis and loss. Finally, Part 4 presents the actual process of clinical education, first through a model of supervision and second, through a research methodology designed for the study of spirituality and health care. Perfect as a text in either education or academic programs, this book will be of interest to all helping professionals who value an integrative and holistic approach to spiritual care and therapy.

In the past 10 years spirituality and spiritual care have been much debated in professional healthcare literature, highlighting the need for a recognised definition of spiritual care to enable appropriate assessment of, and response to, spiritual issues. This accessible and highly relevant book surveys the numerous statements, guidelines and standards highlighted by these discussions, and equips healthcare professionals with the knowledge, skills and competence to provide the essence of spiritual care within their professional practice. Practical and evidence-based, this manual proves that delivery of good, professional spiritual care can build on intuitive human skills, and can be taught, learned, assessed and quantified. It gives readers the opportunity to move on from uncertainties about their role in the delivery of spiritual care by allowing them to asses and improve their understanding, skills and clinical practice in this area of care. Spiritual Care for Healthcare Professionals clearly grounds spiritual care in clinical practice. It is highly recommended for supporting academic study and encouraging healthcare practitioners to reflect on their practice and develop skills in spiritual assessment and care. Aimed at all healthcare professionals, it can be used by individual practitioners for continuing professional development as well as by academic staff developing educational programmes.