Spirituality Training as an Essential Element of Person-Centered Care

Palliative Medicine, built on the biopsychosocial-spiritual model of care, has long recognized the critical role of spirituality in the care of patients with complex, serious, and chronic illnesses. We conducted focus groups to arrive at a consensus definition of “spiritual care.” Additionally, we collected and compared frameworks and models that recognize that providers cannot be made compassionate simply through the imposition of rules; methods were needed to achieve behavior change. The created curricula covered the definitions of spiritual care, self-awareness, cultural sensitivity, assessment, and skills. As part of ongoing curriculum development processes, training included evaluation tools to accompany competency standards. Results demonstrated improvements in self- reported abilities to (a) establish appropriate boundaries with patients; (b) apply the concept of compassionate presence to clinical care; (c) understand the role of spirituality in professional life; (d) identify ethical issues in inter-professional spiritual care. Clinicians need to address patients’ spiritual needs.