Spiritual Needs Assessment and Reflection

This assignment requires you to interview one person and requires an analysis of your interview experience.

Part I: Interview

Select a patient, a family member, or a friend to interview. Be sure to focus on the interviewee’s experience as a patient, regardless of whom you choose to interview.

Please review the following joint commission resource questions

*Who or what provides the patient with strength and hope?

*Does the patient use prayer in their life?

*How does the patient express their spirituality?

*How would the patient describe their philosophy of life?

*What type of spiritual/religious support does the patient desire?

*What is the name of the patient’s clergy, ministers, chaplains, pastor, rabbi?

*What does suffering mean to the patient?

*What does dying mean to the patient?

*What are the patient’s spiritual goals?

*Is there a role of church/synagogue in the patient’s life?

*How does your faith help the patient cope with illness?

*How does the patient keep going day after day?

*What helps the patient get through this health care experience?

*How has illness affected the patient and his/her family?

All these will provide some guidelines for creating spiritual assessment tools for evaluating the spiritual needs of patients. Using this resource and any other guidelines/examples that you can find, create your own tool for assessing the spiritual needs of patients.