Development of a Spiritual Care Model for People at the End of Life in Thailand

Abstract

Background: Spiritual care has been recognized as being intimately connected to palliative care. Spiritual care becomes more important for people at the end of life, who might be in spiritual distress and suffering, which is expressed by feelings of anger, meaninglessness, hopelessness, loneliness, disharmony with personal beliefs and value systems, and difficulty accepting meaning in one's death. Objective: The aim of this paper was to develop a spiritual care model to guide health care providers in Thailand in delivery of spiritual care practices for people at the end of life. Methods: The new spiritual care model builds upon the strength of existing spiritual care models and uses the four steps of the nursing process as the guiding principles for health care providers to identify goals, plan interventions, provide care, and evaluate the outcomes of spiritual care for people at the end of life and their family members. Results: This model allows health care providers to implement spiritual care regardless of their own spiritual affiliations and without relying on a specialist spiritual provider. These are the five steps of spiritual care in the model: history taking, assessment, plan, implementation, and evaluation of spiritual care. During planning and implementation, family members, friends, or community spiritual providers such as monks, nuns, and spiritual care volunteers will be able to engage in planning and providing spiritual care for the care recipient at the end of life. Conclusion: This model could guide nurses, physicians, nursing support staff, nursing and medical students, and physical therapists to provide spiritual care for people at the end of life as well as their family members. Moreover, the model could facilitate connections between people at the end of life, health care providers, families, and their communities to achieve spiritual well-being and a peaceful death.