The difficulties assessing spiritual distress in palliative care patients: a qualitative study

This paper reports on a focus group study aimed at exploring the difficulties that palliative care healthcare professionals encounter while assessing the spiritual distress of their patients. Three focus groups were conducted in a hospice (n = 15). Participants were all healthcare professionals work...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mental health, religion & culture
Authors: Abbas, S.Q. (Author) ; Dein, S. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Taylor & Francis 2011
In: Mental health, religion & culture
Further subjects:B Focus Group
B Spirituality
B difficulties
B Palliative Care
B healthcare professionals
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This paper reports on a focus group study aimed at exploring the difficulties that palliative care healthcare professionals encounter while assessing the spiritual distress of their patients. Three focus groups were conducted in a hospice (n = 15). Participants were all healthcare professionals working in the hospice in-patient unit. Interviews were taped and later transcribed. The data was analysed through content analysis. Emergent themes included: lack of vocabulary around spiritual issues, personal issues surrounding death and dying, training issues, fear of being unable to resolve spiritual problems, time constraints and difficulty separating spiritual and religious needs. Participants provided a number of recommendations for improving care. This pilot study has generated useful data in relation to how spiritual care of patients might be improved. Despite the abundance of academic publications and policies on spirituality, this area is not integrated well into palliative care.
ISSN:1469-9737
Contains:Enthalten in: Mental health, religion & culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/13674671003716780