Patients' and carer's views of spiritual care in nine countries

What is it about?

A group of international researchers has spoken to patients with incurable, progressive disease and family caregivers across nine countries about spiritual care. The results highlight the need for spiritual care, which is often neglected in clinical practice, and provide evidence to inform staff education and future research.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

One of the first international studies in spiritual care, this research was conducted in South Africa (Cape Town), Kenya (Nairobi), South Korea (Seoul), the United States (San Francisco, New York, Washington), Canada (Calgary), the United Kingdom (London), Belgium (Leuven), Finland (Tampere) and Poland (Poznan). In total, 74 patients and 71 caregivers took part in focus groups for the study. Participants reported a wide-spread neglect of spiritual care needs in practice: spiritual care was needed and felt to be important, but was frequently not addressed by healthcare providers. The neglect of spiritual care was thought to be a matter of prioritisation and staff attitude as much as lack of time. While spiritual care specialists (e.g. chaplains) were considered to play important roles, including staff support, participants wanted all interdisciplinary team members to be able to address spiritual issues. There is therefore a clear need for education in initiating conversations about spirituality and assessing spiritual care needs across professional roles. A previous international survey identified priority areas for research in spiritual care among clinicians and researchers. This research adds the patient and caregiver perspective, highlighting research priorities including: educating staff to provide spiritual care and communicate sensitively, making spiritual care suitable for diverse populations, and considering caregivers’ spiritual care needs.

Perspectives