Assessing Patients’ Spiritual Needs in Healthcare: An Overview of Questionnaires

Spiritual care is an area of growing focus in healthcare internationally as research shows that existential, spiritual, and/or religious considerations and needs increase with life-threatening illness, and that quality of life increases when spiritual needs are addressed through spiritual care. This study presents an overview of spiritual assessment questionnaires as a way to approach the assessment of spiritual needs. Through the Catalogue of Spiritual Care Instruments, 22 questionnaires were located, representing a variety of geographical and healthcare contexts. The presentation of these questionnaires initiates a discussion of international relevance for the continuing development of spiritual care and international exchanges of best practices. The study concludes that spiritual assessment questionnaires are in focus in many cultural contexts and healthcare areas, but also that the bias of language makes it difficult to exchange best practice. In the end, a spiritual needs assessment is a matter between the individual patient and the healthcare professional (HCP) involved. It is an area of intimacy and privacy, not easily approached, demanding great empathy on behalf of the involved HCPs. A spiritual needs assessment questionnaire can be an appropriate way to approach this.