Spiritual Assessment Tool

My spiritual assessment was based on a patient by the name Miss Ann. From the assessment, I found that Miss Ann was a strong a believer in Christ, and she had her strength and hope focused on Him. The patient prays at least twice in a day. Currently, the patient desire is attend holy mass in a church, and meet Rev. Fr John: the presiding priest from her church. Miss Ann does not seem afraid of dying since she believes that, she will go to heaven after she dies.

            One of the discoveries I made from the assessment is that, church members have a role to play in patients’ lives. For instance, I discovered that church members from Miss Ann’s church visit her and pray with her regularly. By doing this, Christians demonstrate use of compassionate care, which is based on the traditional, as well as Biblical beliefs that, provision of healthcare must grow from deep compassion.

            My spiritual assessment on Miss Ann was successful. I was able to organize a special holy mass at her home, where she was able to meet with Rev. Fr John. However, in future I plan to improve my spiritual assessment skills by including patients’ spiritual goals in my assessment. This way, I will be able to provide spiritual assistance to patients, while observing their spiritual goals. 

            The only challenge that I encountered while conducting spiritual assessment on Miss Ann was lack of adequate time with the patient. In future, while conducting spiritual assessment, I plan to make appointments with the patients/families prior to assessment to ensure that, the patient/family allocates enough time for the assessment.

            My spiritual experience with Miss Ann was wonderful. I was able to encourage her, and assist fulfill her spiritual needs during the time of her illness. This spiritual assessment tool assisted me to discover Miss Ann’s spiritual needs, assess her spiritual life in the past, and help her achieve some of the spiritual desires she had. Based on my experience with this spiritual assessment tool, I discovered that, patients could experience greater spiritual growth during their illness or their last stage of life.