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Palliative Medicine
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Effects of spiritual care training for palliative care professionals

Maria Wasner

Interdisciplinary Centre for Palliative Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich

Christine Longaker

Spiritual Care Program, London

Martin Johannes Fegg

Gian Domenico Borasio

Interdisciplinary Centre for Palliative Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich

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 (PB 0.001; P =0.013), attitude towards one's family (P =0.001; P =0.031), satisfaction with work (PB 0.001; P =0.039), reduction in work-related stress (PB 0.001; P =0.033), and attitude towards colleagues (P =0.039; P =0.040), as well as in the FACIT-Sp (PB 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.

Key Words: palliative care • professional attitude • religion • self-care • spirituality • quality of life

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 19, No. 2, 99-104 (2005)
DOI: 10.1191/0269216305pm995oa
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