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Fopka-Kowalczyk M, Best M, Krajnik M. The Spiritual Supporter Scale as a New Tool for Assessing Spiritual Care Competencies in Professionals: Design, Validation, and Psychometric Evaluation. JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND HEALTH 2023; 62:2081-2111. [PMID: 35881265 PMCID: PMC10133369 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-022-01608-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/27/2022] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
This study aimed to design, validate and standardize the Spiritual Supporter (SpSup) Scale, a tool designed to assess competency to provide spiritual care including knowledge, sensitivity to spiritual needs and spiritual support skills. This instrument can be used by all those engaged in or training for caregiving roles. The study was conducted in Poland in the Polish language. The SpSup Scale demonstrates high overall reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.88), a satisfactory diagnostic accuracy (0.79), and a satisfactory discriminatory power of the items. Given the psychometric properties of SpSup Scale demonstrated here, the scale is recommended for the assessment of the competency to provide spiritual care in both clinical and research settings in Poland.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Megan Best
- Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, Australia
| | - Małgorzata Krajnik
- Department of Palliative Care, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Collegium Medicum, Bydgoszcz, Poland
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Kremeike K, Bausewein C, Freytag A, Junghanss C, Marx G, Schnakenberg R, Schneider N, Schulz H, Wedding U, Voltz R. [DNVF Memorandum: Health Services Research in the Last Year of Life]. DAS GESUNDHEITSWESEN 2022. [PMID: 36220106 DOI: 10.1055/a-1889-4705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
This memorandum outlines current issues concerning health services research on seriously ill and dying people in the last year of their lives as well as support available for their relatives. Patients in the last phase of life can belong to different disease groups, they may have special characteristics (e. g., people with cognitive and complex impairments, economic disadvantage or migration background) and be in certain phases of life (e. g., parents of minor children, (old) age). The need for a designated memorandum on health services research in the last year of life results from the special situation of those affected and from the special features of health services in this phase of life. With reference to these special features, this memorandum describes methodological and ethical specifics as well as current issues in health services research and how these can be adequately addressed using quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. It has been developed by the palliative medicine section of the German Network for Health Services Research (DNVF) according to the guidelines for DNVF memoranda.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kerstin Kremeike
- Zentrum für Palliativmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Köln, Köln, Deutschland
| | - Claudia Bausewein
- Klinik und Poliklinik für Palliativmedizin, LMU Klinikum München, München, Deutschland
| | - Antje Freytag
- Institut für Allgemeinmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Jena, Deutschland
| | - Christian Junghanss
- Hämatologie, Onkologie und Palliativmedizin, Zentrum für Innere Medizin, Universitätsmedizin Rostock, Rostock, Deutschland
| | - Gabriella Marx
- Institut und Poliklinik Allgemeinmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Deutschland
| | | | - Nils Schneider
- Institut für Allgemeinmedizin und Palliativmedizin, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Deutschland
| | - Holger Schulz
- Institut und Poliklinik für Medizinische Psychologie, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Deutschland
| | - Ulrich Wedding
- Abteilung Palliativmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Jena, Deutschland
| | - Raymond Voltz
- Zentrum für Palliativmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Köln, Köln, Deutschland
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Digital Competencies for Nurses: Tools for Responding to Spiritual Care Needs. Healthcare (Basel) 2022; 10:healthcare10101966. [PMID: 36292414 PMCID: PMC9601534 DOI: 10.3390/healthcare10101966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022] Open
Abstract
Users show a growing interest in expanding the implementation of digital tools as a support of technical and management issues in healthcare. This medical care has focused on telemedicine but does not include the recognition of needs as an important part of patient-centred healthcare. Nurses interact with patients at critical times in their life journeys, including birth and death, which are historical events linked with religious beliefs. Furthermore, large migration flows have led to multicultural societies in which religion and spirituality are experienced in distinct ways by different people. Finally, most healthcare professionals lack the proper skills to handle the spiritual needs of their patients, especially for core and digital competences. This article shows the results of qualitative research applying as a research tool an open-ended questionnaire, which allows detecting the educational needs for nurses’ interventions aimed at providing spiritual support to their patients using digital tools. The results obtained reveal that nurses need education and training on fundamental spiritual concepts and digital competencies to meet the multiple demands of their patients’ spiritual needs. Finally, we present an open digital educational proposal for the development of competencies for nurses and other health professionals to provide spiritual care with the support of digital tools.
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Timmins F, Connolly M, Palmisano S, Burgos D, Juárez LM, Gusman A, Soriano V, Jewdokimow M, Sadłoń W, Serrano AL, Caballero DC, Campagna S, García-Peñuela JMV. Providing Spiritual Care to In-Hospital Patients During COVID-19: A Preliminary European Fact-Finding Study. JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND HEALTH 2022; 61:2212-2232. [PMID: 35511386 PMCID: PMC9069948 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-022-01553-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/26/2022] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Historically, there has be a close relationship between the nursing services and spiritual care provision to patients, arising due to the evolvement of many hospitals and nursing programmes from faith-based institutions and religious order nursing. With increasing secularism, these relationships are less entwined. Nonetheless, as nurses typically encounter patients at critical life events, such as receiving bad news or dying, nurses frequently understand the need and requirement for both spiritual support and religious for patients and families during these times. Yet there are uncertainties, and nurses can feel ill-equipped to deal with patients' spiritual needs. Little education or preparation is provided to these nurses, and they often report a lack of confidence within this area. The development of this confidence and the required competencies is important, especially so with increasingly multicultural societies with diverse spiritual and religious needs. In this manuscript, we discuss initial field work carried out in preparation for the development of an Erasmus Plus educational intervention, entitled from Cure to Care Digital Education and Spiritual Assistance in Healthcare. Referring specifically to post-COVID spirituality needs, this development will support nurses to respond to patients' spiritual needs in the hospital setting, using digital means. This preliminary study revealed that while nurses are actively supporting patients' spiritual needs, their education and training are limited, non-standardised and heterogeneous. Additionally, most spiritual support occurs within the context of a Judeo-Christian framework that may not be suitable for diverse faith and non-faith populations. Educational preparation for nurses to provide spiritual care is therefore urgently required.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiona Timmins
- School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
| | - Michael Connolly
- School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
- Education & Research Centre, Our Lady's Hospice and Care Services, Harold's Cross, Dublin, Ireland.
| | - Stefania Palmisano
- Department of Culture, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Daniel Burgos
- Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño, Spain
| | | | - Alessandro Gusman
- Department of Culture, Politics and Society, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Vicente Soriano
- Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), Logroño, Spain
| | - Marcin Jewdokimow
- Faculty of Humanities, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Wojciech Sadłoń
- Faculty of Humanities, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | | | - David Conde Caballero
- Faculty of Nursing and Occupational Therapy, University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain
| | - Sara Campagna
- Department of Public Health and Pediatrics, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
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Spiritual Care Competences among Health Care Professionals in Pakistan: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey. RELIGIONS 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/rel13040370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Introduction: There is a gap in healthcare literature related to the spiritual competence of physicians and nurses practicing in South Asian Muslim communities. To fill that gap, the Spiritual Care Competence Questionnaire (SCCQ) was applied which was developed to address multi-professional spiritual care competences. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study among 294 health professionals (61% physicians, 17% nurses, and 22% other professions) in 10 hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan. Results: The highest scoring competences were “Dealing with patients/Communication competences”, while “Team Spirit” scored lowest. There were no gender related differences, but there were effects related to professions. “Team Spirit”, “Dealing with patients/Communication competences”, and “Empowerment competences” scored significantly higher in nurses as compared to physicians and other health care professionals, while there were no significant differences for their “Perception/Documentation competences”. These competences were not relevantly related to the intensity of their prayer/meditation activity. Conclusions: Health care professional from Punjab were preferred to tolerate the pain and the suffering of patients and their relatives rather than to talk about spiritual care issues. Their spiritual care competences were less developed. Thus, there is a clear need for further specific education and training of health professionals.
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Büssing A. The Spiritual Needs Questionnaire in Research and Clinical Application: a Summary of Findings. JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND HEALTH 2021; 60:3732-3748. [PMID: 34491481 PMCID: PMC8484079 DOI: 10.1007/s10943-021-01421-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/31/2021] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
To provide spiritual care, an assessment and documentation of patients´ spiritual struggles and/or their spiritual needs is required to initiate appropriate support planning processes. For that purpose, the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) was developed in 2009 as an easy to apply standardized measure. The tool has so far been translated into numerous languages and is widely used as a valid and reliable instrument to assess a wide range of spiritual needs of patients with chronic diseases, elderly, adolescents, and healthy persons. Its four main factors address Religious needs, Existential needs, Inner Peace needs, and Giving/Generativity needs. Here, the main findings are summarized and discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arndt Büssing
- Professorship Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping, Witten/Herdecke University, Gerhard-Kienle-Weg 4, 59313, Herdecke, Germany.
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