The use of spirituality in nursing practice is not new.
However, it is more studied and utilized in a more structured format in nursing.
Identify and discuss tools used to evaluate spirituality.
The use of spirituality within a structured format is relatively new and has expanded its role in nursing significantly.
There are multiple tools available to identify the spiritual aspects within a person’s life such as: Spiritual Assessment’s Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ), Spirituality Triad Score (STS), Spirituality Religious Typology Questionnaire (SRQ-R) and Spiritually Active Scale (SAS).
These tools help to determine how spiritual practices and beliefs are influenced by a person’s culture and religion, in addition to their age, gender, race/ethnicity, and social class.
The use of such tools allows for individuals to better realize the influence that spirituality has on their life.
The importance of identifying the spiritual aspects within nursing practice is expanding as research studies have shown “that nurses are more likely than other health professionals to report positive religious involvement.
Indeed, spirituality is a private matter and therefore difficult to detect or confirm.
The use of spirituality diagnostic tools and other relevant studies has been an important way to identify the role spirituality plays within nursing practice.” (Büssing, 2021).
Spiritual Assessment’s Diagnostic Questionnaire (DQ) is one such tool that helps nurses to better understand the spiritual aspects within a person’s life.
This questionnaire was developed by Van Hooren et al. in response to a need to better understand spirituality within nursing practice and improve care delivery.
Specifically the DQ was developed to help nurses better understand the factors that influence the spiritual aspects within a person’s life such as religion, culture and personal beliefs.
The DQ contains 28 questions that ask individuals to rate specific spiritual experiences among six dimensions: Knowledge, Acceptance, Appreciation, Integration, Celebration and Consecration in addition to an overall rating of spirituality or religiosity.
The DQ also contains five possible outcomes for an individual’s score: positive, positive with reservation, mixed, negative and negative with reservation.
Originally the DQ was designed to be completed by a patient however many programs have found it to be effective when completed by those who are close to the patient such as family or friends.
The Spirituality Triad Score (STS) is another tool that has been developed to help nurses identify spiritual aspects within a person’s life.
Created by Guidano and Carpenter, the STS evaluates a person’s spiritual maturity as well as their personal belief systems and religious beliefs.
The STS contains nine sections that are divided into three parts: Personal religiosity, Spiritual attitudes and Mentality.
Each of the three parts are further divided into specific areas of spirituality such as “belief in God”, “belief in afterlife”, “role of spirit” or “relationship with God”.
This tool helps nurses to better understand the spiritual outlets available to their patient and evaluate their patient’s ability to use these tools to help deal with stress or other situations in their life.
References
Büssing Arndt. (2021). Spiritual needs in research and practice : the spiritual needs questionnaire as a global resource for health and social care. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70139-0
Lucchetti G. Peres M. F. P. & Damiano R. F. (2019). Spirituality religiousness and health : from research to clinical practice. Springer. Retrieved October 14 2022 from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=2244434.