Meeting patients' spiritual needs during end-of-life care: A qualitative study of nurses' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of spiritual care training.

Abstract

To explore nurses' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of spiritual care and the impact of spiritual care training on their clinical roles. Many nurses and healthcare professionals feel unprepared and lack confidence, competence and skills, to recognise, assess and address patients' spiritual issues. Patients with unmet spiritual needs are at increased risk of poorer psychological outcomes, diminished quality of life and reduced sense of spiritual peace. There are implications for patient care if nurses and healthcare professionals cannot attend to patients' spiritual needs. A qualitative methodology was adopted. Recruitment was purposive. A total of 21 generalist and specialist nursing and healthcare professionals from North West and South West England, who undertook spiritual care training between 2015-2017, were recruited. Participants were required to be a minimum of 3months posttraining. Digitally audio-recorded semistructured interviews lasting 11-40min were undertaken in 2016-2017. Data were subjected to thematic analysis. Ethical committee approval was obtained. COREQ reporting guidelines were utilised. Two main themes were identified, recognising spirituality, with subthemes of what spirituality means and what matters, and supporting spiritual needs, with subthemes of recognition of spiritual distress, communication skills, not having the answers and going beyond the physical. Supporting patients as they approach the end of life needs a skilled workforce; acknowledging the importance of spiritual care and having skills to address it are central to delivery of best holistic care. Spiritual care is as important as physical care and supporting patients spiritually as they approach the end of life is vital. Appropriately trained, nurses and healthcare professionals are better able to assess, explore and meet patients' spiritual needs.