BACKGROUND This article examines spiritual care training provided to healthcare professionals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The paper reveals the current extent of available training while defining the target group(s) and teaching aims. In addition to those, we will provide an analysis of delivered competencies, applied teaching and performance assessment methods. METHODS In 2013, an a...

BACKGROUND Exploring patients' spiritual issues is vital for informing holistic care. The spiritual concerns of patients living and dying with advanced heart failure in sub-Saharan Africa remains unknown. Our aim was to describe spiritual issues in the context of the lived experiences of patients with heart failure in Kenya. METHODS We purposively recruited 18 patients admitted with advanced ...

OBJECTIVE To understand the role of religiousness/spirituality in coping in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). METHODS Participants were a convenience sample of 23 patients with CF, ages 5 to 12 years, and their parent(s) in an ambulatory CF clinic. The design was a focused ethnography including in-depth interviews with children and parent(s), children's drawings, and self-administered writt...

There is an undeniable relationship between spirituality and health, and taking a spiritual history is a simple way to increase the focus on spiritual care. This is a pre/posttest intervention study. Questionnaires were administered before implementation of a spiritual assessment (pretest, n = 106), and afterward (posttest, n = 103). Despite a difficult implementation process, the number of con...

BACKGROUND Studies have found higher levels of insecure attachment in individuals with schizophrenia. Attachment theory provides a framework necessary for conceptualizing the development of interpersonal functioning. Some aspects of the attachment of the believer to his/her spiritual figure are similar to those between the child and his/her parents. The correspondence hypothesis suggests that e...

For many patients confronted with chronic diseases, spirituality/religiosity is an important resource for coping. Patients often report unmet spiritual and existential needs, and spiritual support is also associated with better quality of life. Caring for spiritual, existential and psychosocial needs is not only relevant to patients at the end of their life but also to those suffering from long...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To determine to what degree the spiritual needs of patients near the end of life are met. DESIGN Descriptive. SETTING One inpatient and five outpatient hospices. SAMPLE 62 female and 38 male hospice patients with a mean age of 67 years; 74% were dying from cancer. METHODS Each subject completed the Spiritual Needs Inventory and rated life satisfaction via the Cantril ...

CONTEXT Treating both the body and the mind of an injured or ill patient is accepted as necessary for full healing to occur. However, treating the spiritual needs of the patient has less consensus. OBJECTIVE To determine the perceptions and practices of certified athletic trainers (ATs) working in the college/university setting pertaining to spiritual care of the injured athlete. DESIGN Cro...