Healthcare chaplaincy is the provision of pastoral care, spiritual care, or chaplaincy services in healthcare settings, such as hospitals, hospices, or home cares. Healthcare chaplains help patients, families, and caregivers draw on their spiritual, religious, and cultural beliefs to help them cope with that they are going through in these medical settings. Chaplains typically have a masters degree and training specific to chaplaincy, sometimes including being board certified. The role of spirituality in health care has received significant research attention due to its benefits for patients and health care professionals. Integrating spirituality in healthcare can enhance healthcare professionals' ability to communicate effectively with patients and families. It can also have a positive impact on the health and well-being of patients due to its potential to enhance patients' ability to cope with illness and achieve better physical and mental health outcomes. As per 2014, more than 70 medical schools in the United States offer courses on spirituality and medicine. The Association of American Medical Colleges has co-sponsored, with the National Institute for Healthcare Research, four conferences, on curricular development in spirituality and medicine since 1997.
Spiritual assessment Spirituality is defined as "the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred". Spirituality in human society can be found in secular and religious contexts. In a secular context, spirituality is the search for meaning and purpose in life, while in a religious context it is an institutionally determined approach to faith. Understanding spiritual concerns are particularly important when caring for patients at end of life and assisting families through bereavement. Spirituality can provide patients with a path to finding meaning in their life in the face of disease and death. The spiritual beliefs of the patients play an integral role in the patient's ability to cope with their sufferings. The hospital's atmosphere is characterised by diverse emotions, and these emotions are influenced by spiritual and cultural beliefs. Understanding the spirituality of patients allows physicians to know the patient, their ability to cope with the illness and the healing process. Asking patients questions about the meaning of life, their acceptance of their own or others' failures, and how they experience connectedness with others should have the goal of assessing how satisfied the patient is with the answers to these questions. Patients go through numerous questions during illness and spirituality helps them recognize there is a purpose and power beyond human understanding which allows them to go through painful and catastrophic circumstances with ease. Encouraging the expression of emotion and grief is identified as the best approach to spiritual communication in a hospital setting as it allows to build strong rapport with the patient and family By developing personal relationships with their patients and their families, health professionals can better assess patients' spiritual situation. Creating a space to express the spiritual beliefs and values of the family is identified to be highly beneficial to encourage meaning-based coping in patients and their families. There are several ways through which spiritual care can be implemented in hospitals. Five ways to implement spiritual care in health care are discussed here. They are:
Assessing the spiritual needs of patients and families: Open-ended questions, observations and assessment tools can be used to assess the spiritual needs of patients and families. Some examples of opening questions in a spiritual assessment are as follows: "Do you have a religious preference?" "Are there any spiritual or religious practices that are important to you?" "Would you like for us to contact your clergy member or religious advisor?". Integrating spiritual care into the overall care plan: The spiritual needs of the patients need to be evaluated by the healthcare provider and incorporate into the patient's care plan. Access to spiritual resources: Patients and families need to be provided access to spiritual resources including spiritual leaders, chaplains, and religious texts. Providing patients the opportunity to express their spiritual beliefs and practices: The spiritual beliefs and practices of the patients need to be listened to, respected and incorporated into their care. Collaborating with spiritual leaders and communities: Support from spiritual leaders and communities can be obtained for better health care and to provide spiritual support to patients and their families.
Role of spirituality in illness The prospect of death may lead a patient to deal with questions related to meaning of life, such as "Why is this happening to me?" or "Is there a God?" The positive effect of meditation, faith, prayer or religious practice on the patient’s reported health and well-being is well established. Discussion of the spiritual topic with the patients and families in their grief can enhance information exchange about the preferences, ongoing concerns and strategies to support the patient and their family.
Self-care Li and Shun (2016) focused on self care coping styles in patients with chronic heart failure found that spiritual and religious support affects heart failure patients coping with both physical and psychological self-care.
Applications in health care
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