Describe the role that religion plays in providing care for the dying.
Outline 4 questions that people who are facing a serious illness or the possibility of death frequently have
Describe how providing spiritual care involves being present, listening intently, and bearing testimony.
Identify six spiritual demands for the dying
List The six pillars of spiritual care
Mandatory Readings
Before participating in the designated discussion for this unit, review the following readings and resources:
Chapter 1: Spiritual Assessment and Chapter 2: Spiritual Care Intervention in Ferrell’s (2016) text
Article: A Whole Person Approach to Integrating Spiritual Care Into Palliative Care (Puchalski, 2017)
Association of Hospice and Palliative Nurses (HPNA) Statement of Position: Spiritual Care (HPNA, 2015) To access spiritual care, scroll to the bottom and click it.
Overview
Western civilization has changed the idea of death and transformed it into a medical condition that needs to be postponed.
High levels of uncertainty will result in worry and anxiety.
Not accepting death as a natural part of life can result in undesirable circumstances, such as undue pain at the end of life, unneeded therapies, and regret, in addition to producing worry.
Experts are pushing for a shift toward a “happy death” to avoid the loneliness and dread that terminal cancer patients and their informal carers could experience when they’ve evaded the oncoming end of life in the final days.
A good death can include any of the aspects below and is extremely individualized and particular to each person:
Understanding and acceptance
Honest dialogue
well-controlled pain
a feeling of having lived a full life
involvement in final-day decisions
including not just the disease but the entire person
Communication, however, is the most important factor and is crucial to guarantee that the patient’s ideas are understood in order to establish the potential for physicians to promote a “good death” because of the difference in how people communicate their wishes.
Being open to conversation is a wonderful first step since it helps lessen the anxiety and dread associated with talking about death and dying.
⁸˒⁹˒²⁰ Being open is a step toward information seeking, which is linked to several advantageous outcomes, such as improved coping skills,21 higher control perceptions,22 and less worry and fear. ¹⁹˒²³˒²⁴ However,
