Spiritual Needs Assessment and Reflection

This article emphasizes the importance of spiritual needs assessment in healthcare, especially for mental patients. It includes a successful interview with a patient suffering from PTSD and discusses the impact of spirituality on patient recovery. The article also provides an action plan for healthcare providers to improve their skills in spiritual assessment.

Running head: SPIRITUAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND REFLECTION 1
Spiritual Needs Assessment and Reflection
Name
Institution Affiliate

SPIRITUAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND REFLECTION 2
Spiritual Needs Assessment and Reflection
Introduction
Through the continuous emphasis on evidence-based practice in health delivery system,
spiritual assessment can be considered as one of the crucial factors that hinder patient quality
care and satisfaction (Moreira-Almeida, Koenig, & Lucchetti, 2014). The assessment will focus
on the spiritual needs of patients and how it relates to the impact of their recovery. The
assessment interviewee is a 26 years old Native American woman. She is a mental patient
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Due to the privacy discretion of the
patient, I will identify her as JY.
Part (I): Interview
Question 1: Can you describe yourself as a spiritual or religious person? Answer: Yes, I am a
religious person. I was raised in a Christian family where I and my siblings had to attend church
services and groups meetings without any objection.
Question 2: How has your faith developed over the years? Have you ever at any point want to
change your denomination? If yes, why? Answer: Over the years, I have come to develop strong
faith as Christian and as a member of Southern Baptist Convention. With time, I have come to
understand we serve one Supreme being, therefore, the need of changing my denomination has
never crossed my mind.
Question 3: In case of any involvement in a critical situation say medical emergency, do you
believe your spiritual faith has an impact on your recovery? “Does your faith help you?”
Answer: Yes, I believe that despite the medical practice knowledge, all things end up in God’s
hand thus in case of any danger I would highly rely on my faith.

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Question 4: Are there any expectations of you as a true follower in your denomination? Answer:
As any other Christian am expected to offer my tithes which I have grown believing have a
significant impact on one’s life. Also, spiritual cleansing through fasting and dedication to
church is very important to me as a follower and my illness recovery.
Question 5: Does your denomination revoke or restrict any medical actions? Answer: No, there
is no any medical restriction that I am aware of.
Question 6: Does your church and/or congregation members have superstitions belief to some of
the medical issues such mental conditions to their affected members? Answer: Yes, I must
confess that has been a challenge.
Question 7: What are some of the considerations would you like or feel should be aligned with
your medical treatment? Answer: I think some or most medical should identify with the religious
backgrounds of patients where each person should be allowed to select any appropriate means of
recovery at the hospital which he or she feels is the best.
Part (II): Reflection and Analysis
Gibb’s Reflective Cycle
Description of the Assessment
The patient care can be characterized and/or approached both on the physical and
psychological satisfaction of the patient. Through my conversation with JY, spiritual needs
understanding has a significant role in patient healthcare, especially on mental patients. The
conversation and interview between I and JY lasted over 40 minutes which was very successful
interview as per my expectation. JY explained that despite knowing she is in capable hands of

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doctors; she would feel even safer knowing the doctors are God-fearing. With this in mind,
spiritual distress can be considered as one of the main things health care providers should
understand in minimizing or eliminating patient risk (Moreira-Almeida et al., 2014).
Feelings of the Assessments
Spiritual and religious issues can be considered as one of the sensitive matters especially
when dealing with mental patients. Through the interview, I identified that some of the questions
I asked during the assessment were very personal to the patient i.e. on cultural and religious
aspect. Also, through the ability to understand JY psychological perspective, the conversation
engagement was more effective thus allowing her to express herself more openly. Caregivers
should also acknowledge that patient recovery is a progressive process which is in line with
spiritual nourishment (Puchalski, Blatt, Kogan, & Butler, 2014). With the proper understanding
patient spiritual needs, caregivers will be able to align the treatment with required experience and
thoughts that will enhance patient recovery.
Evaluation of Assessment
During the interview one of the main achievements was the ability to connect effectively
with JY. Through this, I was able to understand her psychological perspective and spiritual
distress which directly related to psychosocial, spiritual, and religious aspects. Prior to my
expectation, the conversation was fairly relaxed with her portraying comfortable environment.
One of the main attributes of the assessment tool is that generally, it utilizes patient and caregiver
interrelation experience. One of the main challenges was the inability of the patient to understand
the significance of spiritual assessment and in line making the assessment more of a personal
issue. The contributing factor to this challenge or barrier was that some questions were against

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some practices and culture which reflected more on the patient insecurity. Despite JY effective
cooperation, she was reluctant on answering some questions on her faith beliefs an example is on
the question of church superstitions and misconceptions.
Analysis of Assessment
According to Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations [JCAHO]
(2011), spiritual assessment practice must abide by patient privacy assurance and respect to their
opinions. As stated earlier, religion and spiritual issues is a very sensitive topic in the entire
society. With this in mind, spiritual assessment and understanding are significantly important to
caregivers and the health delivery system. According to Richards, Bartz, & O'Grady, (2009), the
entire staff of practitioners and clinicians should have an adequate understanding of spiritual
needs assessment while dealing with a variety of patients from different religious backgrounds.
Also, the spiritual assessment correspondingly showed that understanding of patient
psychosocial factors is one of the key attributes in having successful interpersonal relationships
between practitioners and patients (Lind, Sendelbach, & Steen, 2011). Through this, clinicians
are able to have a proper connection with patients by understanding their psychological
perspective. The significance of a spiritual assessment tool can be identified with patient care
coherence with healthcare progression (JCAHO, 2011).
Conclusion
In conclusion, spiritual assessment is a very significant element in the healthcare system
and especially to mental patients. Through the interview and conversation between I and JY, I
have learned that spirituality can be characterized as one’s self-reflection and the understanding
of their purpose in life. On the same note, spiritual assessment has the capability to accommodate

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a patient’s ability to overcome illness and generally their well-being (Sharma, Astrow, Texeira,
& Sulmasy, 2012). The assessment findings indicate that there is a significant enhancement in
patient recovery process through proper spiritual support.
Action Plan
In the event I found myself in the same situation, I plan to have a more “well-structured
spiritual assessment interview” with the patient. The idea will be to avoid the earlier experienced
challenges during the interview with JY. In line with enhancing my skills with patients, I will
also drift my focus in understanding the psychosocial factors such as religion which shape the
entire society (Lind et al., 2011). This will assist me in identifying my patient’s spiritual needs
and in line also enhancing their patient care. Prior to JY interview barriers, I must account myself
properly with my actions and questions asked of the patient to avoid any other misunderstanding
or misinterpretation (JCAHO, 2011).

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