Spirituality and End of Life Care
Spiritual care has gained importance in recent years as a pillar in provision of holistic palliative care aimed at alleviating suffering for patients and their family. Spiritual care in the end of life care is not about imposing beliefs and values or converting a terminally ill person but it is about giving hope, strength, meaning, and purpose to the terminally ill person and their family. This paper covers spirituality in end of life care.
Spirituality relates to the beliefs and values a person holds on the meaning of life and may be expressed through association with organized religion or secular ethical values and humanist philosophy. It is important to address the spiritual needs of those approaching the end of life and their families as spirituality provides a coping mechanism for suffering caused by the imminent death. Due to its wide scope than just religion, spirituality is quite different from other concepts such as psychosocial and emotional care. A spiritual assessment is important in assessing a person’s spiritual needs. This is done by the care giver attuning to the dying person’s sense of nature and significance of spiritual issues. The care giver needs education and training in spirituality so easily recognize and respond to spiritual needs. Spiritual care givers need to develop a caring attitude towards their client that would help them to better listen and understand their spiritual needs. The quality of the relationship between the care giver and the patient and the ability to be attentive are the basis for spiritual care.
In conclusion, spiritual care is an important part of holistic end of life care. There is need to educate the care givers on the importance of individualized spiritual care rather than using a ‘one size fits all’ model.
References
Hayden, D. (2011). Spirituality in end-of-life care: Attending the person on their journey. British
Journal of Community Nursing, 16(11), p546-541.
