Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec;36(10):1493-1503.
doi: 10.1177/02692163221122367. Epub 2022 Oct 28.

Identifying, exploring and integrating the spiritual dimension in proactive care planning: A mixed methods evaluation of a communication training intervention for multidisciplinary palliative care teams

Jacqueline van Meurs  1 , Anne B Wichmann  2 , Patricia van Mierlo  3 , Robert van Dongen  4 , Joep van de Geer  5 , Kris Vissers  2 , Carlo Leget  6 , Yvonne Engels  2
Affiliations

Identifying, exploring and integrating the spiritual dimension in proactive care planning: A mixed methods evaluation of a communication training intervention for multidisciplinary palliative care teams

Jacqueline van Meurs et al. Palliat Med. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Background: Patients receiving palliative care value attention given to their spiritual needs. However, these needs often remain unexplored as healthcare professionals lack the skills to identify and explore them and to integrate this information into care plans.

Aim: To evaluate the effects of an interactive communication training intervention for palliative care teams in order to identify and explore the spiritual dimension and integrate it in patients' care plans.

Design: A mixed methods pre-post study, including self-assessment questionnaires, evaluation of videos with simulated consultations (applied competence) and medical record review (implementation).

Setting/participants: Three palliative care teams including nurses (N = 21), physicians (N = 14) and spiritual caregivers (N = 3).

Results: The questionnaires showed an improvement on 'Patient and family-centred communication' of the End-of-life professional caregiver survey (+0.37, p < 0.01; the 8-item S-EOLC (+0.54, p < 0.01) and regarding the Spiritual Care Competence Scale, on the three subscales used (+0.27, p < 0.01, +0.29, p < 0.01 and +0.32, p < 0.01). Video evaluations showed increased attention being paid to patient's aims and needs. The medical record review showed an increase in anticipation on the non-somatic dimension (OR: 2.2, 95% CI: 1.2-4.3, p < 0.05) and, using the Mount Vernon Cancer Network assessment tool, addressing spiritual issues (OR: 10.9, 95% CI: 3.7-39.5, p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Our training intervention resulted in increased palliative care professionals' competence in identifying and exploring patients' spiritual issues, and their integration in multidimensional proactive palliative care plans. The intervention directly addresses patients' spiritual concerns and adds value to their palliative care plans.

Keywords: Palliative care; communication healthcare; comprehensive analysis; interactive learning; multidimensional approach; spiritual care.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Three (non-validated) tools to explore spiritual aspects of palliative care. Published in: Dutch Guideline ‘Existential and Spiritual Aspects of Palliative Care’.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sharpe L, Curran L, Butow P, et al.. Fear of cancer recurrence and death anxiety. Psychooncology 2018; 27: 2559–2565. - PubMed
    1. Bernard M, Strasser F, Gamondi C, et al.. Relationship between spirituality, meaning in life, psychological distress, wish for hastened death, and their influence on quality of life in palliative care patients. J Pain Symptom Manag 2017; 54: 514–522. - PubMed
    1. Boston P, Bruce A, Schreiber R. Existential suffering in the palliative care setting: an integrated literature review. J Pain Symptom Manag 2011; 41: 604–618. - PubMed
    1. Ferrell BR, Temel JS, Temin S, et al.. Integration of palliative care into standard oncology care: American Society of Clinical Oncology clinical practice guideline update. J Clin Oncol 2017; 35: 96–112. - PubMed
    1. Jordan K, Aapro M, Kaasa S, et al.. European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) position paper on supportive and palliative care. Ann Oncol 2018; 29: 36–43. - PubMed

Publication types