The spiritual distress assessment tool: an instrument to assess spiritual distress in hospitalised elderly persons

BMC Geriatrics

Research Article

Guy Jobin¹  Brenda Spencer²  Estelle Martin³  Christophe J Büla³  Stefanie M Monod³  Etienne Rochat⁴ 

[1]Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences, University of Laval, G1V 0A6, Quebec, QC, Canada

[2]Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (IUMSP), University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne, Bugnon 17, 1005, Lausanne, Switzerland

[3]Service of Geriatric Medicine & Geriatric Rehabilitation, University of Lausanne Medical Center (CHUV), 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

[4]Service of Geriatric Medicine & Geriatric Rehabilitation, University of Lausanne Medical Center (CHUV), 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

[5]Chaplaincy Service, University of Lausanne Medical Center (CHUV), 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

关键词: Face Validity;    Pastoral Care;    Geriatric Care;    Life Balance;    Spirituality Assessment;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2318-10-88

 received in 2010-03-12, accepted in 2010-12-13,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAlthough spirituality is usually considered a positive resource for coping with illness, spiritual distress may have a negative influence on health outcomes. Tools are needed to identify spiritual distress in clinical practice and subsequently address identified needs. This study describes the first steps in the development of a clinically acceptable instrument to assess spiritual distress in hospitalized elderly patients.MethodsA three-step process was used to develop the Spiritual Distress Assessment Tool (SDAT): 1) Conceptualisation by a multidisciplinary group of a model (Spiritual Needs Model) to define the different dimensions characterizing a patient's spirituality and their corresponding needs; 2) Operationalisation of the Spiritual Needs Model within geriatric hospital care leading to a set of questions (SDAT) investigating needs related to each of the defined dimensions; 3) Qualitative assessment of the instrument's acceptability and face validity in hospital chaplains.ResultsFour dimensions of spirituality (Meaning, Transcendence, Values, and Psychosocial Identity) and their corresponding needs were defined. A formalised assessment procedure to both identify and subsequently score unmet spiritual needs and spiritual distress was developed. Face validity and acceptability in clinical practice were confirmed by chaplains involved in the focus groups.ConclusionsThe SDAT appears to be a clinically acceptable instrument to assess spiritual distress in elderly hospitalised persons. Studies are ongoing to investigate the psychometric properties of the instrument and to assess its potential to serve as a basis for integrating the spiritual dimension in the patient's plan of care.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Monod et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.