ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to define new care models in order to ensure continuity of care, facing new individual and public health needs. Medicalized Hotel Facility for self-sufficient COVID patients (COVID Hotel) is a new care model introduced in many countries to face the spread of contagions and the consequent need to implement effective isolation strategies. In our experience the Hotel has given hospitality to people from the most disparate territorial settings and with a great variety of health care needs (physical, psychological, social and spiritual). Although COVID is in most cases a self-limiting acute viral disease, in a pandemic context, comprehensive geriatric assessment has proven to be particularly appropriate for the management of the COVID Hotel, also in the approach to younger patients. © 2022, Pacini Editore S.p.A./AU-CNS. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In the A. Gemelli university hospital in Rome, the presence of highly specialized inter-professional palliative care teams and spiritual assistants who are dedicated to their role in the service of inpatients is valuable to person-centered healthcare. Spiritual needs are commonly experienced by patients with sudden illness, chronic conditions, and life-limiting conditions, and, consequently, spiritual care is an intrinsic and essential component of palliative care. This paper focuses on the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to demonstrate the importance of spiritual care as an integral part of palliative care and highlights the need for all interdisciplinary team members to address spiritual issues in order to improve the holistic assistance to the patient. Over a 3-year period (October 2018-September 2021), data about the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick administered by the hospitaller chaplaincy were collected. A total of 1541 anointings were administered, with an average of 514 anointings per year, excluding reductions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 98% of cases, the sacrament was requested by health personnel, and in 96% of cases, the same health personnel participated in the sacrament. These results demonstrate that, at the A. Gemelli polyclinic in Rome, the level of training that the care team has received in collaboration with the chaplains has generated a good generalized awareness of the importance of integrating the spiritual needs of patients and their families into their care, considering salvation as well as health, in a model of dynamic interprofessional integration.