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Purpose: Spiritual care is a component of the holistic nursing approach. But in practice, nurses face many challenges during the implementation of spirituality care. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore the barriers and facilitators affecting spiritual care practices by oncology nurses.Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a conventional content analysis based on semi-structured interviews with 25 participants, including cancer patients and their family members, oncology nurses, physicians, psychologist, and spiritual researcher-therapists.Results: The results showed that the two main themes of the study, "spiritual competency" and "spiritual inefficiency" in healthcare organization, were two major factors in implementing spiritual care practices for cancer patients by oncology nurses.Conclusions: The findings of this study emphasize the necessity of developing coherent spiritual care programs in hospitals and removing administrative barriers. Teaching spiritual care in nursing courses at schools and continuing education programs for training of healthcare team members are necessary. Likewise, forming a spiritual care team with oncology nurses at the center and defining their members' roles and responsibilities are essential. Hospital managers can also make fruitful steps by establishing a monitoring system and identifying the needs and barriers for spiritual care in oncology settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared decision making (SDM) is a central component of patient-centered care; however, a minimal amount is known about what health care chaplains contribute to this process. Data from 463 full-time chaplains practicing in the United States collected by an online survey was analyzed using SPSS 26 for bivariate and multivariate logistical regressions to identify variables impacting chaplain integration into SDM. Coding of free text responses yielded multiple domains for chaplain contributions and barriers. Thirty-eight percent of chaplains reported being often or frequently integrated into health care team discussions regarding medical decisions, with years of professional experience, time spent supporting the emotional processing of medical decisions, and being well-prepared as the strongest predictors for high integration. Qualitative analysis yielded a multifaceted picture that includes chaplain attention to the impact religion has on decision making, a focus on the patient story, and chaplains as mediators between patients, families, and the health care team. The full integration of chaplains into SDM will require education of the interdisciplinary team regarding the scope of chaplain knowledge and skills, as well as organizational level changes in chaplain to patient ratios and coverage models. In this era of increased fragmentation of health care provision and advancing complexity of medical decision making, models of Interprofessional Shared Decision Making (IP-SDM) such as the one proposed here that appreciate the specialized knowledge and skills of each member of the health care team hold promise for enhancing patient-centered care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We will soon be piloting a project titled “Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care” that will form “spiritual care teams” to assess and address patients’ spiritual needs in physician outpatient practices within Adventist Health System, the largest Protestant healthcare system in the United States. This paper describes the goals, the rationale, and the structure of the spiritual care teams that will soon be implemented, and discusses the barriers to providing spiritual care that health professionals are likely to encounter. Spiritual care teams may operate in an outpatient or an inpatient setting, and their purpose is to provide health professionals with resources necessary to practice whole person healthcare that includes spiritual care. We believe that this project will serve as a model for faith-based health systems seeking to visibly demonstrate their mission in a way that makes them unique and expresses their values. Not only does this model have the potential to be cost-effective, but also the capacity to increase the quality of patient care and the satisfaction that health professionals derive from providing care. If successful, this model could spread beyond faith-based systems to secular systems as well both in the U.S. and worldwide.

We will soon be piloting a project titled "Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care" that will form "spiritual care teams" to assess and address patients' spiritual needs in physician outpatient practices within Adventist Health System, the largest Protestant healthcare system in the United States. This paper describes the goals, the rationale, and the structure of the spiritual care teams that will soon be implemented, and discusses the barriers to providing spiritual care that health professionals are likely to encounter. Spiritual care teams may operate in an outpatient or an inpatient setting, and their purpose is to provide health professionals with resources necessary to practice whole person healthcare that includes spiritual care. We believe that this project will serve as a model for faith-based health systems seeking to visibly demonstrate their mission in a way that makes them unique and expresses their values. Not only does this model have the potential to be cost-effective, but also the capacity to increase the quality of patient care and the satisfaction that health professionals derive from providing care. If successful, this model could spread beyond faith-based systems to secular systems as well both in the U.S. and worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]