ABSTRACT
To deliver spiritual care, professionals must be skilled in physical, mental, social, and spiritual care. Spiritual care competence includes knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and skills that enable successful or efficient care. This review aims to identify the scope of competence and the specific skills, knowledge, and attitudes used in providing spiritual care to people needing palliative care, and the main challenges and facilitators. A scoping review was developed using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. Six databases (Web of Science; MEDLINE/Pubmed; Scopus; CINAHL; MedicLatina and SciELO) were searched in September 2023, with an update in January 2024. The resulting 30 articles were analyzed using a content analysis approach. Information was categorized into three domains: cognitive, affective, and functional (based on three personal resources: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and transpersonal). Palliative care professionals face a lack of training and insufficient preparation to deliver spiritual care. Spiritual care competence depends on professional spiritual development and experience, spiritual intelligence (cognitive), spiritual humility (affective), and having a critical and reflexive mind (functional). In the future, palliative care should seek to improve competent spiritual care. This review could help clarify the real configuration of competent spiritual care and lead to improvements in a professional's empowerment when delivering effective spiritual care to patients and families.
ABSTRACT
Spiritual care requires understanding the spiritual experiences of patients and recognizing their resources and needs. Therefore, educators and practitioners should develop their knowledge and understanding in this regard. Spiritual care helps people overcome their anxieties, worries, and suffering; reduces stress; promotes healing; and encourages patients to find inner peace. To provide comprehensive and appropriate care while upholding human/ethical virtues, the spiritual dimension must be a priority. We aim to develop spiritual care competence guidelines for Palliative Care (PC) education and practice in Portugal and Spain. The study detailed in this protocol paper will include three phases. In phase I, the phenomenon will be characterized and divided into two tasks: (1) a concept analysis of "spiritual care competence"; and (2) a systematic review of interventions or strategies used to integrate spiritual care in PC education and practice. Phase II will entail a sequential explanatory approach (online survey and qualitative interviews) to deepen understanding of the perceptions and experiences of educators, practitioners, and patients/family carers regarding spiritual care in PC education and practice and generate ideas for the next steps. Phase III will comprise a multi-phased, consensus-based approach to identify priority areas of need as decided by a group of experts. Results will be used to produce guidelines for integrating spirituality and spiritual care competence within PC education and practice and synthesized in a white book for PC professionals. The value of this improved examination of spiritual care competence will ultimately depend on whether it can inform the development and implementation of tailored educational and PC services. The project will promote the 'spiritual care' imperative, helping practitioners and patients/family carers in their preparedness for End-of-Life care, as well as improving curricular practices in this domain.
Subject(s)
Hospice Care , Spiritual Therapies , Terminal Care , Humans , Spirituality , Palliative Care/methods , Systematic Reviews as TopicABSTRACT
Los profesionales sanitarios y especialmente los que trabajamos en oncología y cuidados paliativos somos frecuentemente interpelados por el sufrimiento de nuestros pacientes. El modelo biomédico, es insuficiente para entenderlo y atenderlo. Para ello se requiere ampliar la perspectiva, hacia una visión más abierta que incluya nuestra dimensión espiritual. La espiritualidad es un universal humano, y se expresa como el dinamismo que impulsa nuestro anhelo inagotable de plenitud y felicidad, que caracteriza la condición humana y que se expresa en la red de relaciones que cada persona establece. La enfermedad grave y la proximidad de la muerte son oportunidades de apertura a esta dimensión y de sanación. El profesional que conoce este proceso puede acercarse desde la hospitalidad, presencia y compasión y acompañar este itinerario. En este articulo intentamos explorar de forma resumida qué entendemos por espiritualidad, espiritualidad en clínica, necesidades y recursos espirituales, el itinerario de la persona que atraviesa un proceso de sufrimiento, perdida y/o muerte y las actitudes y herramientas de los profesionales para explorar, atender y acompañar en este espacio difícil y hasta ahora poco transitado
Healthcare professionals, and specially the ones in oncology and palliative care, are frequently questioned about our patients suffering. The biomedical model is not enough for understanding and caring for it. Therefore, the perspective needs to be widened through a more open vision that includes our spiritual dimension. Spirituality is a human universal, that expresses as the dynamism that boosts our infinite desire of plenitude and happiness, that characterizes human condition and that is expressed in the net of relationships stablished by each person. Severe illness and proximity to death are opportunities of an opening to this dimension and of healing. Professionals that know this process can approach from hospitality, presence and compassion, and accompany patients in this journey. In this paper, we try to explore in a synthesized way, what is understood by spirituality, clinical spirituality, spiritual resources and needs, the journey of a person going through a suffering, loose or dying process, and the attitudes and tools of professionals to explore and accompany in this difficult and not very busy path
