Spiritual Care: A Guide for Caregivers

JUDITHALLEN SHELLY

Preface •••••••••7

• Part One: What Is Spiritual Care?

1 Spirituality & Health
.......... 13

2 Assessing Spiritual Needs
......... 27

3 Breaking the Spiritual Care Barrier
........... 41

• Part Two: Doing Spiritual Care

4 The Worshiping Community
.......... 59

5 Compassionate Presence
............ 74

6 Prayer
........... 89

7 The Bible ........... 105

8 The Power of Touch
.......... 114

• Part Three: Caring for the Caregiver

9 The Family Caregiver
.......... 129

10 Caring for Yourself
.......... 142

11 Developing a Spiritual Care Team
........... 157

Notes
......... 173

Further Reading...........
176

Resources...........
178

Twenty-three years ago Sharon Fish and I set out to write a book
on spiritual care for nurses. Through Nurses Christian Fellowship
we had been teaching workshops on the spiritual needs of patients
for several years. As nurses began to practice the principles we
taught, they found their nursing care revolutionized. Spiritual
care enabled nurses to do what they first became nurses to doserve God and help other people. Nurses also saw their patients
getting well faster and finding peace in the face of death. Each
time we taught a workshop, nurses asked us, "Where can we read
more? How can we share this information with other nurses?" So
finally we wrote the book Spiritual Care: The Nursed Role, published
in 1978 and revised twice since.

In recent years it has become clear that the time has come for
an altogether new book. Nursing and health care have changed.
The interest in spiritual care has grown among health care professionals and among churches. A new role of parish nurse has developed. Spirituality has become a hot topic in every sector.

In the "olden days" when we wrote the first Spiritual Care,
nurses worked primarily in hospitals. Patients often spent several
days in the hospital for "tests" or for minor surgical procedures. Major surgery required stays of a week or more. Nurses were able
to spend time with their patients and get to know them. Visiting
nurses frequently continued seeing patients at home for months
after hospital discharge. These extended visits usually focused on
the psychosocial needs of their patients as well as physical ones.
There was time to develop relationships and provide sensitive
spiritual care.

Today managed care limits hospital stays to a minimum. What
was once considered major surgery may now be performed on
outpatients. Nursing assistants provide most of the bedside care in
hospitals. A host of specialty health care professionals provides
specific services: one starts the intravenous drip, another manages
the respiratory therapy, another the physical therapy, and still
another gives dietary instructions. Home care visits are short and
few and may include the same diverse assortment of caregivers.
Patients often feel alone and afraid, lost in an impersonal system.
Health care professionals also feel dissatisfied with the changes,
frustrated by their inability to provide compassionate personal
care.

In the midst of the health care crisis, the need for spiritual care
has become much more apparent. Research on the healing power
of prayer, the value of faith and the effect of religious commitment
on mortality rates has piqued the interest of even the most hardened skeptics. Not only nurses, but physicians and other health
care professionals, as well as clergy and lay visitors in churches,
are asking for a guidebook to practical spiritual care.

A pastor in the Chicago area, Granger Westberg, had a dream
of providing comprehensive health care in churches, with spiritual
care as the primary focus. This vision eventually grew into the
burgeoning parish nurse movement. These nurses in churches,
sometimes called congregational care nurses or health ministers, serve in either volunteer or paid positions as health promoters,
educators, counselors, advocates and referral agents--but primarily as integrators of faith and health. Their main focus is on the
spiritual dimension of health care.

However, in the rush to include the spiritual dimension in
health care, spirituality has become many different things. If you
asked someone in 1976, "Are you interested in spiritual things?"
you could usually assume that the other person would reply from
a Christian context. Not any more. Today you will hear about
everything from crystals to goddess worship. Spirituality has also
been interpreted generically as something apart from religion. As
such, it has become a pursuit of self-fulfillment without content.
Christian spirituality, on the other hand, seeks a dynamic relationship with the living God.

This book is designed for anyone who wants to offer Christian
spiritual care: nurses, parish nurses, physicians, other health caregivers, clergy and lay visitors. It will help you reach out to people
with spiritual needs in your church or professional practice, your
next-door neighbor or the person sitting next to you on the bus.
The basic premise is that all people have the same essential spiritual needs and that those needs are ultimately met in Jesus Christ.
However, we do not have to go rushing in to proselytize or to
preach; we can gently share the hope that is within us. We offer
compassionate presence, prayer, the Word of God, a gentle touch
and a message of hope and healing from the context of a worshiping community. Through it all, the power of the Holy Spirit works
through us and in us to glorify Jesus Christ and bring us together
into the presence of God the Father.

I am grateful to the many people who have contributed to this
body of content over the years. Nurses Christian Fellowship has
continued to teach and develop the material. Christian health care workers around the world have caught the vision, conducted
research and developed creative strategies to care for the spiritual
needs of those who suffer. Special thanks go to those who worked
with me to refine the book: Mary Thompson, Linda Kunz,
Eleanor Edman, Melodee Yohe, Skip McDonald, Grace Tazelaar
and Sharon Fish. I am also indebted to IVP editor Linda Doll for
her enthusiasm and encouragement along the way.