Spiritual Needs Assessment: Interview, Analysis, and Conclusion

This report presents an analysis of a spiritual needs assessment interview conducted with an elderly woman who is a consultant for aged care homes and recovering from breast cancer. The interview explores her faith, beliefs, and how they impact her coping mechanisms. The assessment utilizes the FACT tool, focusing on Faith, Active, Coping, and Treatment aspects. The interviewee identifies Christianity as her faith, highlighting the Bible's significance in providing meaning and purpose. She actively participates in her faith community, relying on family, friends, and the Church for support. Her faith provides comfort and helps her cope with her medical condition, without conflicting with her medical treatment. The report includes an analysis of the interview, highlighting what went well (comfortable and confident interviewee), and what could be improved in future assessments (focusing on experiences). It also addresses potential barriers such as religious differences and how to overcome them. The report emphasizes the importance of spiritual assessments in healthcare to provide holistic patient care, referencing the Joint Commission's mandate for spiritual assessments and the need for healthcare organizations to provide spiritual care. The report concludes that spiritual and religious dimensions of existence are important for well-being and the healthcare system should find ways to improve and provide spiritual assessment to its patients.

Interview Transcript
I choose an elderly woman whom I previously interviewed regarding the affordable health care
legislative provisions. She is also a private consultant for aged care homes and is in the process
to start the child counselling in her own household accommodation, so that she can stay longer
with her own children. along with. I specifically chose her, due to the fact that she herself is in
the same profession and I was keen to gather the knowledge she acquired and applied on herself
through the health conditions she is currently recovering from.
First Question
What is your Faith or belief? Do you consider yourself a person of Faith or a spiritual person?
What things do you believe that give your life meaning and purpose?
First Answer
The belief I have is on Christianity and furthermore, I have full faith in our Christ and follow
bible with a view to take lesson from it and apply that in my everyday life. I believe that bible is
the only way out to give my life a meaning and a definite purpose.
Second Question
Active (or Available, Accessible, Applicable): Are you currently Active in your faith
community? Are you part of a religious or spiritual community? Is support for your faith
Available to you? Do you have Access to what you need to Apply your faith (or your beliefs)? Is
there a person or a group whose presence and support you value at a time like this?
Second Answer
Yes, I am fully active in my own community of faith and am not directly involved but have
connections in a religious community.
My friends along with my family members and nevertheless the Church are my only support
when it comes to faith. So, I rely more on Bible, since that only gives me the idea when I am
confused, and every time I saw Bible is the only way out.
Well, as I said before, I am actively involved in faith communities, so yes, I have peoples around
me who supports me and understands my needs, but if you ask me to select I would tell that my
partners at prayer are valued by me as the support.
Third Question
Coping (or Comfort); Conflicts (or Concerns): How are you Coping with your medical situation?
Is your faith (your beliefs) helping you Cope? How is your faith (your beliefs) providing
Comfort in light of your diagnosis? Do any of your religious beliefs or spiritual practices
Conflict with medical treatment? Are there any particular Concerns you have for us as your
medical team?
Third Answer
Well, look here, I am suffering from early stages of breast cancer, and have recently undergone
mastectomy of one side of my breasts. So, when I go to Church I remain hopeful that, its not
over yet and so I try to maintain that I go to Church every day. So, it is my faith which actually
makes me move on and provides comfort.
Spiritual needs Assessment Survey

I do not have any conflict with the medical treatment and hence no concerns whatsoever.
Fourth Question
Do you think your treatment is responsible for your 100 percent recovery?
Fourth Answer
See I am having Cancer, full recovery is not guaranteed, however, as my conditions of breast
cancer was detected at an earlier stage, so doctors told me that I am not dying soon (Laughs)
I think its only my faith which makes me move and that is where I get motivated to feel stronger
with the passage of time.
Fifth Question
If your medical provider wishes to use other methods in assisting with your treatment do you
think your faith/religion will come in the way of that?
Fifth Answer
No way, my religion will be a problem for any kind of treatment. Again, I am recovering,
doctors recently found that the cancer is not spreading as of yet, so I think the path which the
doctors are taking pretty much appropriate and I have full trust in them, and finally I think God
does only the right things, hence it is just time, I will be ok.
Analysis
What went well?
According to me, what I acquired from the above- mentioned interview is that, I can use this
interview as a plan, more specifically a care plan, and I think in the interview, she was not only
comfortable but also confident and have actual knowledge about what is happening to her.
What to do differently in the future?
When in future I will be doing the assessments, I will concentrate more on the experiences which
the patients came across than focussing on their respective views of the religion. However, I will
maintain the parity with the FACT, so that the faith of the patients can be understood.
Barriers and Challenges
The woman I interviewed is from a particular religion and is quite open- minded as to the faiths
and beliefs she possesses. But, every one is different so challenges might come when the patients
feel awkward about speaking of their faith.
Again, another barrier can be that the counsellor is a Muslim guy and the patient is Christian, so
the counsellor might not know and be familiar with what questions he or she can ask.
How to address challenges and changes that are necessary?
In future I will have a familiarity if me and my client is having different faiths. So, that there
remains no awkwardness or any kind of uncomfortable will not arise.
Spiritual needs Assessment Survey

Tools ability to meet needs of the patient
The tool I used is according to me is quite a successful tool since it helps to reach such decisions
which are not only quick but also well determined and also accurate since it helps to determine
the person’s current status of health crisis which might be affecting their spiritual well-being and
that could very well be based on that determination.
So, to conclude, it is evident that, the Health care systems have the opportunity for making
improvements so that their performance and also their quality is uplifted. So, while providing
holistic care to the patients a spiritual assessment needs to be performed to get an in- depth
knowledge about the religion and spirituality with regards to health, which are quite often
ignored and overlooked by the health care professionals. (America’s Hospitals: Improving
Quality and Safety – The Joint Commission’s Annual Report , 2014). According to the Joint
Commission, the health care organizations are mandated to perform a spiritual assessment, non-
compliance of which will cancel the respective accreditation. So, to stay in compliance the health
care organizations performs the spiritual assessment and in so doing obtain the insights the
problems of the patients and find ways to provide assistance. So, based on the guidelines
provided by Joint Commission for the evaluation of the spiritual needs the five questions were
asked in the interview. Spirituality and religion are important dimensions of existence and is a
powerful resource for some people to achieve well-being while dealing with the challenges of
life. In the current interview, I used F. A. C. T. (Mark LaRocca-Pitts , 2015) which allowed me
gather that information which a patient have on their spiritual life along with their practices,
which will in a way help to cope the prolonged crisis with the health- care organisation. (Mark
LaRocca-Pitts, 2014).
References
America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety – The Joint Commission’s Annual Report .
(2014). Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/tjc_annual_report_2014/
Mark LaRocca-Pitts . (2015). Four FACTs Spiritual Assessment Tool . Journal of Health Care
Chaplaincy, 21(2), 51-59.
Mark LaRocca-Pitts. (2014). FACT, A Chaplain's Tool for Assessing Spiritual Needs in an
Acute Care Setting. 28(1), 25-32.
Spiritual needs Assessment Survey