Abstract
A hospital admission presents various challenges for a patient which often result in high or intense spiritual needs. To provide the best possible care for older adults during hospitalization, it is essential to assess patients’ spiritual needs. However, little research has been done into the spiritual needs of geriatric patients. This article seeks insight into what is known in the literature on the spiritual needs of geriatric patients. This integrative review presents a summary of the articles on this topic. To select eligible studies, the PRISMA Flow Diagram was used. This resulted in ten articles that have been reviewed. Results show (1) a wide interest in researching spiritual needs, using different research designs. In addition, (2) four subcategories of spiritual needs can be distinguished: (a) the need to be connected with others or with God/the transcendent/the divine, (b) religious needs, (c) the need to find meaning in life, and (d) the need to maintain one’s identity. Moreover, results show that (3) assessing spiritual needs is required to provide the best possible spiritual care, and that (4) there are four reasons for unmet spiritual needs. Further research is needed on the definition of spiritual needs and to investigate older patients’ spiritual needs and the relation with their well-being, mental health and religious coping mechanisms, in order to provide the best spiritual care.
Highlights
In recent years, spirituality has become an indispensable part of both research on aging and the care of older adults (MacKinlay and Trevitt 2007; Peteet et al 2019; Stanley et al 2011)
The measurement tool for spiritual needs used in the study, the conclusions of the study related to patients’ spiritual needs and the general conclusion of the study are summarized in this table
Four subcategories of spiritual needs are frequently mentioned by the research participants in the studies; i.e., the need to be connected with others or with God/the transcendent/the divine, religious needs, the need to find meaning in life, and the need for maintaining identity
Summary
Spirituality has become an indispensable part of both research on aging and the care of older adults (MacKinlay and Trevitt 2007; Peteet et al 2019; Stanley et al 2011). More and more research acknowledges the role of spirituality for older patients’ well-being and recognizes the prevalence of spiritual needs in aging (Koenig et al 1995; Manning 2012; Moberg 2005; Wink and Dillon 2002; Weber and Pargament 2014). Unmet spiritual needs are reported and often related to health concerns, especially during hospital admissions (Hodge et al 2012; Okon 2005; Ross 1997). This is in line with earlier prominent research that argues “that illness or hospitalization may prevent individuals from having their spiritual needs met and prevent them from attaining their optimum health potential” (Ross 1995). In order to provide the best possible care and to recognize people’s spiritual experiences, it is Religions 2020, 11, 529; doi:10.3390/rel11100529 www.mdpi.com/journal/religions
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