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Spiritual care

What are basic spiritual care needs?

  • Being listened to
  • Being affirmed and valued
  • Being respected
  • Being given emotional support
  • Being understood
  • Being given access to religious support
  • being allowed to simply 'be' without judgement

What are the potential triggers for spiritual distress?

These may differ across specific clinical specialities but more generally these may include:

  • After a trauma (such as an accident or assault)
  • When bad news is broken
  • When a lengthy stay is envisaged
  • When a situation becomes life-threatening or terminal
  • When a bereavement is being experienced
  • When a patient is isolated and receiving no visitors
  • When a patient is a long way from home
  • When undergoing a crisis (in personal or home situations as well as in health)
  • When treatment is being withdrawn
  • On a significant anniversary

What are the signs of spiritual distress?

Everyone is different and whilst some people experiencing spiritual distress may exhibit very clear symptoms, others may internalise their experience and it may not be obvious. The following is not an exhaustive list but does show some common symptoms:

  • Tearfulness or weeping
  • Withdrawal or lack of interest
  • Restlessness or being unable to settle
  • Complaining
  • Anger
  • Sudden religious leanings or abandonment of previously held beliefs
  • Fear (of being alone or falling asleep and so on)

What role does the Chaplaincy team play in spiritual care?

The Chaplaincy team are the specialists in the field of spiritual healthcare within the Trust and as such, it is the responsibility of the team to:

  • be available for consultation and advice on spiritual and religious care matters within SUHT
  • to advise and support the developments of localised responses to providing spiritually and culturally sensitive area
  • to assist with an understanding of spiritual healthcare assessments as part of patient care pathways
  • to encourage and facilitate a confident and robust approach to spiritual healthcare and to advise on relevant training needs

It is also the Chaplaincy team’s responsibility to deliver spiritual and religious care, in line with the profession’s nationally agreed best practice guidelines and codes of conduct. Urgent referrals made to the team will be seen as soon as possible and usually within the hour. Non urgent referrals will be seen within 24 hours, unless arranged otherwise with the referrer.

When responding to referrals, Chaplains will aim to:

  • discover how the patient is coping with their hospital stay,
  • look for how the patient is making sense of what is happening to them,
  • discover what the patient's coping mechanism is and if it is effective in this instance,
  • check to see if there is any distress, such as fear, loss, sorrow, withdrawal or anger,
  • check for any strong value or belief system and check whether this is currently sustaining, hindering or challenging them,
  • check for any religious needs,
  • discover whether the patient would like to talk through their experience or issues,
  • discover how supported the patient is or feels,
  • check the patient's sense of self, identity, worth, dignity and esteem

How might the chaplains deliver spiritual care?

Chaplains provide:

  • a listening ear, using reflective listening skills and open questions, allowing the patient to reflect on their experience, coping patterns, beliefs and concerns
  • emotional and psychological care – being there, alongside the patient, helping them to not feel alone, comforted, supported and ‘held’.
  • religious care - absolution, anointing, holy communion, baptism, prayer, and access to a faith leader.
  • dignity – by being there, alongside the patient and respecting the individual as a whole person.
  • a means to express loss, fear anger and sorrow
  • a safe place where people can be themselves and they can express their fears and concerns in a fully confidential setting.

How is spiritual care recorded?

Within the Chaplaincy department, each patient visit is recorded along with the general category of care that was given. For those who have formal referrals, this is recorded in slightly more detail on referral sheets to aid communication within the team. Some clinical areas have separate spiritual care recording sheets within the multiprofessional care notes. Some have spaces contained within the Care Pathways (for example, the Liverpool Care Pathway).

It is recommended that staff record referrals they make to the Chaplaincy department in the patient’s notes, along with any spiritual care they may have provided. Chaplains should write any significant encounters in these notes as well as ensuring that the primary carer for that patient is made aware of any situation that is deemed important communication around their care.