Spiritual Needs Assessment

Part I: Interview

Select a patient, a family member, or a friend to interview. Be sure to focus on the interviewee’s experience as a patient, regardless of whom you choose to interview.

Review The Joint Commission resource which provides some guidelines for creating spiritual assessment tools for evaluating the spiritual needs of patients. Using this resource and any other guidelines/examples that you can find, create your own tool for assessing the spiritual needs of patients.

Create a survey to assess the subject’s spiritual need during the interview. The spiritual needs assessment survey needs a minimum of five questions that can be answered during the interview.  During the interview, document the interviewee’s responses.

Submit the transcript of the interview. The transcript should include the questions asked and the answers provided.  Be sure record the responses during the interview by taking detailed notes. Omit specific names and other personal information from the interview.

Part II: Analysis

Write a 250-500 word analysis of your interview experience. Be sure to exclude specific names and other personal information from the interview. Instead provide demographics such as sex, age, ethnicity, and religion. Include the following in your response:

1. What went well?
2. What would you do differently in the future?
3. Were there any barriers or challenges that inhibited your ability to complete the assessment tool? How would you address these in the future or change your assessment to better address these challenges?
4. Describe the spiritual experience you had with your patient, family member, or friend using this tool. How does this tool allow you to better meet the needs of your patient?
5. Did you discover that illness and stress amplified the spiritual concern and needs of your interviewee?  Explain your answer with examples.