PHI 413 When it comes to facilitating spiritual care for patients with worldviews different from your own, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

Spiritual care is an important aspect in patient care, and the quality of the spiritual care can make a difference in patients’ outlook on their illness. Personally, I think my biggest weakness when it comes to spiritual care is knowledge. I don’t really know much about any religion aside from Christianity, so it would be easy for me to accidentally say or do something that could be insensitive or offensive because I simply do not know the proper way to handle certain situations. I would consider my strength to be that I am very open-minded and willing to “live and let live”, as long as you aren’t harming someone else you can do what you want and believe what you want. I like to think that I am mostly unprejudiced when it comes to treating people equally, though I do know I have a few small snags here and there that I need to work on.

If I were a patient in a situation where there were difficult decisions to be made, I would want to get as much information about the options as possible from my doctor and a second, possibly even a third opinion. I would also consult my family – my mom, dad, and husband, and try to come to a decision with their help. And I would spend the whole time praying, asking God what I should do. I think as the patient I should have the final say in what happens, even if I make a decision that is different from what everyone else says I should do, but I personally would put a lot of weight on other peoples’ opinions. If I were unable to make the decision, I would hope my family would be able to come to a good decision, and I think my husband should have the final say when it comes to making medical decisions.

Spiritual care is so helpful in overall patient health and patient support. We must assess their spiritual needs, wants, and openness to spiritual care prior to constructing a plan of care for these patients. I feel like I am strong in the areas of kindness, openness, and education but could use improvement on my personal knowledge of other spiritualities. While I am willing to educate patients when it comes to their health, I also really like to listen to them and assess their overall needs. Some patients need things that we are unaware of because they do not manifest in a physical sense so it is crucial for us as healthcare workers to dig deep and get the patients the care they need and deserve.

In the event of ethical decision making for my own personal care I would like to make the decisions if I am able. In the event that I am not, my family knows my goals and wishes so they would be able to successfully make decisions based on my care with me in mind. Giving them direction has made the difficult situations we have faced as a family a little more straight forward as we all have our healthcare wishes written our for each other. Making decisions is difficult regardless of the situation but especially when it comes to healthcare, having the decision made makes things much more simple in the event of a difficult situation.

Evans, K. (2020). Practicing Dignity: An Introduction to Christian Values and Decision Making in

Health Care. Retrieved from: https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi413v/practicing-dignity-an-introduction-to-christian-values-and-decision-making-in-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/5

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I am able to provide care to each patient no matter what religion they are in. When it comes to facilitating spiritual care to my patients with a different worldview, I give the same compassionate care they deserve. In my career, I have not been in a situation where I have had problems due to differences in worldviews. I sat with a patient as she told me all about her Jehovah’s Witness beliefs, which I found very interesting. Jehovah’s Witness is not my worldview, but I continued to listen to her because she needed to know that she was in good hands, and I was interested in her health and her worldview beliefs. Treating a patient’s spirituality is part of the holistic care approach we all strive for in the healthcare setting, caring for the whole person, body, mind, and spirit. “Spirituality affects every aspect of a person’s life, so offering emotional and spiritual care support should be an important focus for all health care providers. (Evans, 2020)

PHI 413 When it comes to facilitating spiritual care for patients with worldviews different from your own, what are your strengths and weaknesses

I would have the final say in my health care decisions in the form of a health care directive. I would let my end-of-life decisions be known to my family. My ethical decision-maker would be my sister. She is in the health field and would honor the decisions I chose. This would be tough for her, but she would be assured she was making the right decision and what was in my best interest.

Reference

Evans, K. (2020). Intervention, Ethical Decision Making, and Spiritual Care. Practicing dignity: An introduction to Christian values and decision making in Health Care. https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi413v/practicing-dignity-an-introduction-to-christian-values-and-decision-making-in-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/5

Spiritual care is an essential part of the healing process for every human being physically, mentally, and emotionally. During my patient rounds, I might encounter patients with different worldviews or religions. It is somehow of a challenge for me when I have a patient with a different worldview than mine due to my lack of knowledge about other religions. However, the best way to approach those situations is to acknowledge other people’s beliefs, be active listener, provide support and facilitate communication with pastoral care.As a healthcare professional, it is important to learn about different religions to understand their beliefs and traditions, but it is most important to empathize and provide care with love and respect for every human being because humans are creatures of God (Hoehner, 2020).

As a patient, if there is a difficult ethical decision or medical interventions to be made in a case that I am incapable to make those decisions about my care, my husband would be the person assigned to do so as we have discussed my preferences and wishes, as he is also in the health care field. Furthermore, even though he would have the final say, he is a Christian, and I trust that before making difficult and critical decisions, he would discuss them with my parents and siblings because it is our custom to discuss any critical issues as a family for the beneficence of the one in need.

References:

Hoehner, P. J. (2020). Biomedical ethics in the Christian narrative. In Grand Canyon University [GCU]. Practicing Dignity: An introduction to Christian values and decision making in healthcare. (ch.3). https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi413v/practicing-dignity-an-introduction-to-christian-values-and-decision-making-in-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/3

To be honest I have had limited experience with patients with conflicting worldviews. This is because I am still in nursing school and have only completed so many clinicals of having one or two patients. In my few experiences with people with different worldviews I have found my strength is my wanting to learn about their cultures. I wasn’t raised in a religious household although both of my parents believe in God. We never went to church on Sundays, it wasn’t until high school that I began going to youth group. Although my family wasn’t religious they always raised me to be respectful of other people. My parents always raised me to not be judgmental towards others regardless if I agree with their choices. My biggest weakness is lack of experience and understanding of certain cultures. I don’t want to offend my first patient of a certain culture because of my lack of knowledge and experience with taking care of similar patients. If I was the patient my wife knows what my wishes are in certain circumstances. She also knows if any treatment is necessary and I’m not able to decide for myself I would like her to consult my father. My father is an RN and I trust any choices he would make on my behalf.

Evans, K. (2020). Foundational Issues in Christian Spirituality and Ethics. In

Practicing Dignity: An Introduction to Christian Values & Decision Making in Health Care (1st ed.). Retrieved from: Practicing Dignity: An Introduction to Christian Values and Decision Making in Health Care (gcumedia.com)

An insightful post on presenting your strength and weakness pertaining to providing spiritual care for patients with regards to worldviews different from your own and explaining who would have the final say if you were the patient in a difficult situation necessitating ethical decision-making and interventions to be made in terms of your health. I agree as mentioned in your writing that, wanting to continuously learn about others’ views regarding their culture, religion, spirituality, and worldview is ideal in providing respectful spiritual care to all patients no matter where they are from or what their beliefs are. In terms of being a nurse and wanting to provide appropriate spiritual care, the FICA spiritual history tool is an excellent conversation guide for healthcare professionals such as nurses in the clinical setting by providing a structured set of questions to be asked to the patients that include the following:

F – Faith and belief

Question example: “Do you consider yourself spiritual or religious?”

I – Importance

Question example: “What importance does your spirituality have in your life?”

C – Community

Question example: “Are you part of a spiritual community?”

A – Address in Care

Question example: “How would you like me, your health care provider, to address these issues in your health care?” (Pallipedia, 2021, para. 1 – 4).

Implementing this spiritual assessment tool in the clinical setting as a nurse caring for patients from all walks of life will foster a trusting nurse-patient relationship as the nurse is better able to understand the spiritual needs of their patients which will further enhance the patient-centered care experience of delivering astute care rooted in patient safety and quality care for the best health outcomes according to the patient’s spirituality as they deem appropriate. Spiritual care is the source of our strength in times of hardship and in living a life of quality towards peace.

Reference

Pallipedia. (2021). Spiritual assessment: FICA spiritual history tool. International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care (IAHPC). https://pallipedia.org/spiritual-assessment-fica-spiritual-history-tool/

PHI 413 When it comes to facilitating spiritual care for patients with worldviews different from your own, what are your strengths and weaknesses?