Spiritual Needs Assessment in Post-Secular Contexts: An Integrative Review of Questionnaires

Area of Science:

• Healthcare studies
• Spiritual care research
• Cross-cultural healthcare

Background:

• Spiritual care offers significant patient benefits when appropriately provided.
• Integrating spiritual care into daily practice is challenging, especially in post-secular, culturally diverse, and pluralist healthcare settings.
• Existing spiritual needs assessment tools may not be suitable for all contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate spiritual needs questionnaires from a post-secular perspective.
• To assess the applicability of these questionnaires in secular healthcare environments.
• To provide guidelines for implementing spiritual needs assessment in diverse cultural contexts.

Main Methods:

• An integrative review methodology was employed.
• Eleven spiritual needs questionnaires were critically evaluated.
• Analysis focused on religious/spiritual (RS) wording, cultural relevance, and potential for patient-professional consensus.

Main Results:

• The review identified key factors influencing the successful implementation of spiritual needs questionnaires.
• Specific challenges related to RS wording and cultural context were highlighted.
• The potential for achieving consensual understanding between patients and healthcare professionals was examined.

Conclusions:

• Implementing spiritual needs questionnaires in secular healthcare requires careful consideration of cultural and linguistic diversity.
• The study offers a framework for the international exchange of best practices in spiritual needs assessment.
• Guidelines are provided to assist healthcare professionals in adapting and using these tools effectively across different contexts.