Every day, health care practitioners must work with patients and families who have varying values, ethics, beliefs, religion, and spirituality. As a result, health care practitioners must inquire patients about their spiritual requirements and identify the role such needs play in a patient's health care. To establish a healing atmosphere for the patient, health care personnel must first learn about the patient's spiritual and religious needs (Galek et al. 2004). The patient will be treated physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually in this manner. The following academic paper presents an interview of patient X to determine the best interventions based spirituality for assessing the needs of the patient. The aim of the paper is to establish if there is a causal relationship between religion, spirituality, and health. Research shows that there is a positive relationship between spirituality and coping with stress and illness (Galek et al. 2004). Patients understand and cope with their suffering through their religious and spiritual beliefs.
The Interview
Patient X is a hospitalized female patient in Ideal Hospital. She is 33 years old and was admitted to the facilities for pneumonia. The interview entails ten questions which Patient X needed to answer yes or no and explain how important it was to her on a scale of five (slightly, moderately, very, extremely). Patient X has her roots in Asia, and she is a believer of the Catholic faith.
Questions
Yes
No
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M
V
EX
Do you feel the need to be hopeful?
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Do you feel like participating in a religious or a spiritual service?
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Do you feel the need to see meaning in your suffering?
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Do you feel the need to have someone pray for you?
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Do you want to address the issues of life after death?
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Do you feel like reading the Bible or religious material?
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Do you feel the need to talk to someone about death?
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At times, do you feel the need to appreciate or experience beauty?
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Does it make you happy to listen to some gospel music?
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Do you feel the need to feel some peace and contentment?
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Notes Taken During the Interview
At the time of the interview, Patient X seemed tired and restless, and I did not want to ask her questions that would make her walk too much. Therefore, I selected questions that she would answer with a single word. However, when I asked her about addressing the issue of death, she had a smile on her face and asked me why I think she would want to talk about death. According to her, those who addressed the issue of death were preparing to die, and she was not going to die. She added, ‘my children are only 13 and ten years old, I am not prepared to leave them. They are still too young to be left without a mother. I want to fight this illness that I am having and go back to them. I believe that I will live enough to see my grandchildren. Therefore, death is not a topic for discussion.' She had such conviction that made me admire her. She was so much convinced that she would get better. When I asked Patient X if she needed someone to pray for her, she was hesitant. She did not believe that she needed a person to connect her to God. According to her, her only mediator was Jesus. That was weird considering Catholic believe in priests connecting them to God. However, she said she would need a priest to guide her on how to pray for healing and strength.
Analysis
To determine the essential aspect of the patient's needs, I reviewed several articles describing some interpretations of religiousness. The articles explained the need for people to connect with things that are beyond their self. The authors describe the spiritual realms in which a person feels the need to commune with things that are divine in nature. For instance, Leder (1990) identifies three realms of spirituality. Firstly, he describes the ability of people to commune or connects with the divine or sacred. Secondly, he analyses the ability of humankind to become fascinated by the disbelief found in the wonders of life and finally, the author explains the ability of people to offer and at the same time receive love and compassion. Besides, Leder explains that realizing the interrelationships of ontology is essential for a person to gain awareness as well as deepen relationships that exist between oneself, other people and spirituality (Leder, 1990). The branch of metaphysics that explains nature and existence is known as ontology. It examines the nature of religiousness as well as the sense of connecting with the world. One important theme in the eastern ontology explains that all phenomena are different in some ways but are related interdependently. This is a great paradox that allows human beings to have a flux between the desire to disconnectedness and longing for intimacy. As people try to meet their needs, there is a tendency of provoking a sense on disconnectedness and suffering from the aim of controlling other people and events (Leder, 1990). That way, interventions that are expected to meet the needs of a patient can be more efficient and effective if the health care providers and the caregivers identify acknowledge as well as get rid of their need to control and allow their innate knowledge of compassion to arise.
On the other hand, Peterson & Seligman (2004) explain how different character strengths that are associated with the ability to connect with the transcendent. The authors explain that people who have a positive attitude towards life and the beauty it brings possess some inner strength that allows them to connect with something that is beyond them. It can be the beauty of music or art or nature itself (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). Some people would feel connected to nature by listening to a gospel music that exalts the mightiness of God. Similarly, some people appreciate the beauty of rivers flowing, the mountains, birds singing and cliffs. On the other hand, the authors explain that humor is one of the character strength that is associated with experiencing the divine power. Humor puts a smile on the faces of others and allows a person to see the brighter side of something serious. It helps ease the pain one feels whether physical or mental.
Health care providers were the first professionals to get interested in determining the spiritual needs of a patient as well as identify the spiritual distress. In the modern nursing profession, there exists enough literature from respectable scholars explaining health and spirituality (Peterson & Seligman, 2004). From the interview with patient X, I was able to identify some spiritual needs. Firstly, the patient needed to connect with the divine supreme being. Secondly, patient X needed hope, positivity in life as well as appreciativeness. Thirdly, the patient needed to give as well as receive compassion from the caregivers, from her family members and most importantly her children. Besides, the patient needed the assurance that she would get better and to read the Bible and other religious material as well as listening to gospel music gave her that assurance. Finally, the patient needed to make a review of her beliefs and a religious reader would help her in that process.
According to Taylor & Amenta (1994), the caregivers, as well as the patient's family members, also need spiritual needs as much as the patient. In most cases, patients turn to their family members as well as the health care providers for support and assurance that they will get better (Taylor & Amenta, 1994). Therefore, it is important for the health care professionals to cater for the family members’ spiritual needs in order to ensure holistic care to the patient.
Conclusion
While assessing the needs of the patient, it was not easy talking to the patient about the issue of death. The patient was very agitated when I mentioned death. I realized that some patients are afraid of dying and it may affect them psychologically. Therefore, I realized it would be much better to allow the patient to be the one to come up with the issue. It would have been much better if I had learned from her, how she feels about death. In most cases, patients are always positive and ready to accept death, and it makes it easier to address the issue while assessing the spiritual needs of a patient. In the case of Patient X, it would be advisable to incorporate a psychiatrist, who can help her with the fear of death. Conclusively, assessing the spiritual needs of the patient allowed us as her caregivers to understand that her children were important to her and visited her would allow making her feel much better. The patient was positive about getting better and was hopeful. She appreciated the beauty and wonders of life and reading her a religious material would help her in healing.
References
Galek, K., Flannelly, K. J., Vane, A., & Galek, R. M. (2005). Assessing a patient's spiritual needs: a comprehensive instrument. Holistic Nursing Practice, 19(2), 62-69.
Leder, D. (1990). The absent body. University of Chicago Press.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.
Taylor, E. J., & Amenta, M. (1994). Cancer nurses' perspectives on spiritual care: Implications for pastoral care. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 48(3), 259-265.
