Spiritual Needs Assessment in Healthcare

This case study focuses on assessing the spiritual needs of a 34-year-old Catholic Christian patient in a mental healthcare setting. Utilizing the FICA tool, the interview explores the patient's religious beliefs, their importance in life, and how spirituality influences their health and coping mechanisms. The analysis highlights the barriers faced during the interview and the strategies to overcome them. It emphasizes the significance of spirituality in healthcare and outlines interventions to support the patient's spiritual needs, ultimately contributing to a comprehensive treatment plan.

Running head: INTERVIEW
Interview
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Part 1:
Interview questions to assess spiritual needs:
The patient is chosen for the interview to assess the spiritual needs of the patient pertaining to his
or her mental healthcare.
Faith and belief- (F) What are your religious or spiritual beliefs?
Since, I am a Catholic Christian; I believe that our God, Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I
believe that humans are born with sin and Baptism can only remove it. I believe that during
illness spiritual resources and physical strength is important to address the needs of the physical
crisis.
Importance (I) - Is your religious belief important in your life?
Yes, my religious beliefs are important in my life as to gain happiness, one need to believe in
God. I have learned from Jesus Christ that we should love, know and serve the humankind. God
is present everywhere and reward the good and punishes the evil.
Community (C) - How does your religion influence your mood and behaviour during this
illness and how community participation help you?
My religious beliefs influence my mood and behaviour in a way during my illness in which I
think religious involvement is important to relieve stress and illness pain. By increasing social
resources, it provides positive psychological support to me and keep me fit by visiting church.
Address of care (A)- What role your spirituality play in resolving your health problems?

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I feel that by visiting church, I get positive energy and it greatly provides me strength to fight my
illness. High level of devotion to religious service gives me positive health behaviour towards
my illness and builds my self-esteem and optimism.
How would you like your spirituality to address your issues in the treatment?
I believe that mind, body and spirit are connected. Any of these factors affect one’s health and
well-being. When my mind and spirit gets positivity while visiting church and chanting prayer, I
gain comfort, positivity and strength. Through meditation, religion, and my spirituality, it
addresses my treatment by contributing a sense of well-being and healing.
FICA TOOL has been used for the spirituality assessment of the patient (Puchalski, 2014).
Part B: Analysis of interview
The patient chosen for the interview is from the hospital in Illinois, Chicago in United States.
The patient is 34-year-old Catholic Christian patient.
1. The interview with the patient went well. He was very cooperative and connected well
with me. He has good insight into religious beliefs and provides interest in answering
questions provided to him. He provided proper information and has in-depth knowledge
about his religion. He was communicative in nature and was empathetic towards the
answering the questions.
2. Before the commencement of the interview, there were barriers witnessed. At the
beginning, there was lack of confidence and nervousness prevailed in the interviewee.
Although, the interview showed adequate preparation and information in the patient,
there was anxiety in the patient due to lack of practice in the interviewee. However,

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through effective communication with the patient, it was possible to overcome the
barriers and turn it into a successful interview that addresses the aim of the interview. In
the future, to address these barriers during the interview, I will try to focus on the
interview aims and questions and try to achieve it. The first few minutes of the interview
is crucial, as the interviewer should be confident and smart to take up the interview. I will
stay confident and firm with steady gaze to make my appearance impeccable with
apparent confidence. I will be well prepared before the interview keeping in my mind my
weaknesses and strengths. I will try to make questions that provide multi-level responses
and answer the research questions to make it a successful interview.
3. More than 70% of the Americans perceive spirituality and religion important in
addressing the issues of healthcare and affecting the encounter. Therefore, for the patients
who believe that spirituality addresses their healthcare needs and responses to treatment,
FICA tool addresses the spiritual needs of the patient that supported me in incorporating
them in his treatment plan for better recovery (Norris, Walseman & Puchalski, 2013).
This assessment tool is also important in encouraging him to use the religious resources
that promote overall wellness. This tool assessment helped me to strengthen my
relationship with the patient and by providing him opportunities for resiliency, renewal
and growth. When my patient’s spiritual needs are assessed, it helped me to form a
comprehensive treatment plan for my patient with the illness.
4. Yes, it is true that illness and related stress amplified the spiritual concerns of the
interviewer. The spiritual beliefs of the patient helped him to cope up with stress like
going to church keeps him healthy and provide him resilience and self-esteem to cope
with his illness. Although, spirituality cannot address the illness and treatment, it gives

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the patient inner strength and peace to fight the illness, as he believes that Lord Jesus
Christ gives him power to overcome the illness pain. The acts of prayer, meditation,
listening to devotional songs, yoga and attending religious programs helped my patient to
address his spiritual needs and gain resilience to fight disease (Sun et al., 2016). This
clearly demonstrates that my patient beliefs towards spiritualty and religion are amplified
during his illness and stress that helped him to cope it.
5.2 Interventions
After the assessment of the spiritual needs of my patient, I have developed interventions
for him. As he said that visiting church keeps him healthy, I will plan a schedule for his church
visits. I will try to provide him a prayer room for conveying his thoughts and acceptance to
treatment and helpful in instilling hope in him. I will be physically present to determine his
spiritual choices and religion by making a list of his important values and take very measure to
address his spiritual needs like meditation, yoga, prayer and listening to devotional songs (Keall,
Clayton & Butow, 2014).

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References
Keall, R., Clayton, J. M., & Butow, P. (2014). Australian Palliative Care Nurses’ Reflections on
Existential/Spiritual Interventions. Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing, 16(2), 105-
112.
Norris, L., Walseman, K., & Puchalski, C. M. (2013). Communicating about spiritual issues with
cancer patients. In New Challenges in Communication with Cancer Patients (pp. 91-103).
Springer US.
Puchalski, C. M. (2014). The FICA spiritual history tool# 274. Journal of palliative medicine,
17(1), 105-106.
Sun, V., Kim, J. Y., Irish, T. L., Borneman, T., Sidhu, R. K., Klein, L., & Ferrell, B. (2016).
Palliative care and spiritual well‐being in lung cancer patients and family caregivers.
Psycho‐Oncology, 25(12), 1448-1455.