Formal and informal spiritual assessment

Spirituality is increasingly recognized as an essential element of health. A novel model of interprofessional spiritual care was developed by a national consensus conference of experts in spiritual care and palliative care. Integral to this model is a spiritual screening, history or assessment as part of the routine history of patients. Spiritual screening can be done by a clinician on an intake into a hospital setting. Clinicians who make diagnosis and assessments and plans, and make referrals to appropriate experts do spiritual histories. In spiritual care, board certified chaplains, spiritual directors and pastoral counselors are the typical spiritual care referrals. Board certified chaplain do a spiritual assessment that is a more detailed assessment of religious and spiritual beliefs and how those impact care or patient's healthcare decision-making. There are several screening and history tools. One history tool named FICA, was developed by a group of primary care physicians and recently validated at study at the City of Hope. This tool is widely used in a variety of clinical settings in the US and Canada. The spiritual history tools allow the clinician the opportunity to diagnose spiritual distress or identify patients' spiritual resources of strength and then integrate that information into the clinical treatment or care plan.