Teaching Healthcare Providers How to Provide Spiritual Care: A Pilot Study

• Published in: Psycho-oncology (Chichester, England) Vol. 23; p. 10
• Main Authors: Zollfrank, Angelika, Trevino, Kelly, Cadge, Wendy, Balboni, Michael, Gallivan, Kathy, Thiel, Mary Martha, VanderWeele, Tyler, Balboni, Tracy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-02-2014
• Subjects: Health care delivery; Health education; Health services utilization; Medical personnel; Oncology; Spirituality; Training
• ISSN: 1057-9249; 1099-1611

Spiritual care is an important component of comprehensive patient-centered oncology care. However, spiritual care is often excluded, despite evidence that patients want to discuss spirituality with their providers. One obstacle to the integration of spiritual care into oncology services is a lack of provider training. This longitudinal study describes and evaluates a program designed to train healthcare providers in the integration of spiritual care into healthcare services. Clinical Pastoral Education for Healthcare Providers (CPE) is a five-month training program available to providers across disciplines. The program includes an educational and clinical component; the clinical component is completed within participants' regular work setting. Participants learn to conduct basic spiritual assessments, offer appropriate prayer, inquire about R/S issues impacting care, and refer to a board certified chaplain as needed. Fifty participants completed a survey pre- and post-training that assessed four domains: ability to provide religious/spiritual (R/S) care, frequency of R/S care, comfort using religious language, and confidence in providing R/S care. The change in measures over time was assessed with paired sample t-tests. Participants' self-reported ability to provide spiritual care (t(44) = 12.58), p<.001; 33% increase) and their comfort using religious language (t(44) = 7.20), p<.001; 29% increase) improved from baseline to post-training. Participants also reported an increase in the frequency with which they provided spiritual care (t(45) = 6.79), p<.001; 75% increase). Participants' confidence in their ability to provide spiritual care improved from baseline to post-training overall (t(44) = 9.30), p<.001; 36% increase) and for religiously concordant (t(35) = 5.95), p<.001; 20% increase) and religiously discordant patients (t(34) = 8.00), p<.001; 43% increase). Finally, participants reported greater confidence in their ability to provide spiritual care to patients of the same versus a different religious affiliation at baseline (t(36) = 8.96), p<.001) and post-training (t(36) = 8.13), p<.001). However, this difference significantly reduced over time (t(34) = 3.00), p = .005; 35% decrease). To date, systematic evaluation of programs that educate healthcare providers about spiritual care have