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Palliative care advocates a holistic, multiprofessional approach to the care of people with life-threatening disease. In addition to the control of physical symptoms attention should also be paid to psychosocial, cultural and spiritual aspects of the patient's experience of illness. Guidance documents and research evidence reflect the complexity of the patient's journey and the need to regularly assess these areas of need over time. Cultural background can shape how patients respond to life-threatening illness, as can the beliefs held by the patients, whether religious or more broadly spiritual. Research evidence shows the importance of identifying and addressing cultural and spiritual aspects of care held by patients, families and staff. These are often neglected in clinical practice due to the focus on biomedical concerns and staff discomfort in engaging with beliefs and culture. Recent studies have highlighted gaps in the research, and some methodological difficulties and indicate many patients welcome healthcare staff enquiring about the importance of their beliefs and culture. Identifying research priorities is necessary to guide future research and strengthen the evidence base. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Spirituality is an important aspect of holistic care. However, it is often overlooked. I was prompted to read the article after realising I was unsure how I integrate spirituality into my nursing practice.
Author notes
This reflective account is based on NS795 Rogers M, Wattis J (2015) Spirituality in nursing practice. Nursing Standard. 29, 39, 51-57. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality8.1 (Feb 2016): 54-64.
Religiousness has frequently been found to be associated with higher reported mental health levels than those found in individuals lower in reported religiousness. These results have often been inferred by scholars to mean that secular groups have poorer levels of mental health despite the fact that secular populations have rarely been included in studies. In this study, an ideologically diverse sample of 4,667 respondents was included to determine the relationships among general dogmatism levels, existential dogmatism, religiousness, and 5 indicators of mental health. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
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Starting the conversation about spiritual needs and being with a person in spiritual distress can be difficult for staff and volunteers. Expressing spiritual distress is a challenge for patients and their loved ones, as knowing where to begin and how to put feelings into words can feel impossible.
The St Barnabas Hospice Spiritual Wellbeing Boxes have been developed to make vital interaction between patients, their loved ones, our staff and volunteers a little easier.
This resource aims to help frontline professionals and providers working in community settings and commissioners maintain a holistic approach to the people dying, caring or bereaved.
It provides information to help ensure that commissioning and delivery of services and practice takes account of spiritual needs of the largest 6 faith groups in England and remains appropriate to the community setting in which they work.
Spiritual care for people with dementia who are in nursing homes is one aspect of the holistic care provided by nurses. A number of studies have explored the concepts of spirituality and religiosity, but fewer studies describe how nurses provide spiritual care in practice. The Purpose of the study was thus to investigate how nurses and care workers can provide spiritual care for people with dementia who live in nursing homes. Open Access Article
High intrinsic and extrinsic religiosities are likely to be associated with positive coping skills and better treatment outcome in patients with depression or diabetes. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
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