Reference no: EM131543793

Question: Spiritual care is part of the art of nursing and professional care. Spiritual care is defined by the literature as recognizing, respecting, and meeting patients' spiritual needs; facilitating participation in religious rituals; communicating through listening and talking with clients; being with the patient by caring, supporting, and showing empathy; promoting a sense of well-being by helping them to find meaning and purpose in their illness and overall life; and referring them to other professionals, including chaplains/pastors (Baldcchino, 2015). My strengths are that I am genuinely not a judgmental person and I am interested in learning about different cultures and beliefs. I feel that I can learn just as much from my patients as they can learn from me. I am also good at building trust with my patients. My charge nurse always jokes when a patient is being "difficult" by saying "give the crazy to Eve." I usually do end up with the difficult patients but I often find that they were feeling disrespected or neglected by the staff prior to my shift. I think that my weakness is that I am to emotionally invested with my patients. I have a hard time with not providing words or services that I feel will help the patient even when it is against policy. For example, we are not allowed to hug our patients but I have been hugged by a patient and did not feel right about not returning the gesture.

If I were a patient and had difficult decisions to be made, my sister would make the decisions. Both my husband and my sister agree that my husband would not be able to carry out my wishes. I love my husband to death but he is not capable of making the decision to take me off life support if necessary, especially because he doesn't believe that anyone should be taken off because of stories he has read about people waking up after years and being perfectly fine. My sister is very matter of fact and I know that she will do exactly what I want even if it's hard.

Baldcchino, D. (2015). Spiritual Care Education of Healthcare Professionals. Religion, 6, 594-613.