
Abstract
Little is known about the effects of spiritual care training for professionals in palliative medicine. We therefore investigated prospectively the effects of such training over a six-month period. All 63 participants of the three and a half-day training were asked to fill out three questionnaires: before and after the training, as well as six months later. The questionnaires included demographic data, numeric rating scales about general attitudes towards the work in palliative care, the Self-Transcendence Scale (STS), the spiritual subscale of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT-Sp) and the Idler Index of Religiosity (IIR). Forty-eight participants (76) completed all three questionnaires (91 women, median age 49 years; 51 nurses, 16 hospice volunteers, 14 physicians).Significant and sustained improvements were found in self-perceived compassion for the dying (after the training: P =0.002; 6 months later: P=0.025), compassion for oneself (P < 0.001; P =0.013), attitude towards one's family (P =0.001; P =0.031), satisfaction with work (P < 0.001; P =0.039), reduction in work-related stress (P < 0.001; P =0.033), and attitude towards colleagues (P =0.039; P =0.040), as well as in the FACIT-Sp (P < 0.001; P =0.040). Our results suggest that the spiritual care training had a positive influence on the spiritual well-being and the attitudes of the participating palliative care professionals which was preserved over a six-month period.
Item Type: | Journal article |
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Form of publication: | Publisher's Version |
Faculties: | Medicine |
Subjects: | 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:bvb:19-epub-15160-8 |
Alliance/National Licence: | This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively. |
Language: | English |
Item ID: | 15160 |
Date Deposited: | 16. May 2013, 14:06 |
Last Modified: | 04. Nov 2020, 12:55 |