Spirituality in the continuing education of healthcare professionals: An approach to palliative care.

OBJECTIVE: A major barrier to the adoption of an approach that integrates spirituality into palliative care is the lack of preparation/education of healthcare professionals on the topic. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a continuing education activity for healthcare professionals addressing spirituality and spiritual care provision to patients and families within palliative care. METHOD: We conducted an intervention study using a quantitative pre- and posttest design in a convenience sample of 52 healthcare professionals. Participants completed the Brazilian version of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale before and after attending a four-hour continuing education activity. RESULT: Significant differences were observed between pre- and postintervention scores in the following dimensions: assessment and implementation of spiritual care, professionalization and improving the quality of spiritual care, personal support, and patient counseling (p < 0.001), and referral (p = 0.003). SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The results of this study provide preliminary evidence of a positive effect of this educational intervention on the development of the competences needed by healthcare professionals to deliver a comprehensive approach centered on the patient/family, which includes attention to spirituality and spiritual care in the decision-making process.

Cross-cultural validation of the Brazilian version of the spiritual care competence scale.

OBJECTIVE: This study describes the cross-cultural validation and psychometric evaluation of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale - Brazilian Portuguese version. This reliable and valid instrument is recommended in the literature to measure the outcomes of the education process in the development of spiritual care competences. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional validation study following the stages proposed by Beaton et al.: translation into Portuguese, back translation into English, expert committee review for semantic equivalence, assessment of the clarity of the pre-final version, and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the final version in Portuguese. Health professionals working at a public hospital in South Brazil participated in the different stages of this study.ResultRegarding internal consistency, total Cronbach's alpha was 0.92 and the mean inter-item correlation was 0.29. The test-retest procedure showed no statistically significant differences in the six subscales. The intraclass correlation coefficient ranged from 0.67 to 0.84, demonstrating the stability of the scale.Significance of resultsThe results support the psychometric quality of the scale and indicate that the adapted instrument is a valid and reliable scale with good internal consistency for measuring spiritual care competencies of health professionals in Brazilian healthcare settings.

Restrição alimentar por motivação religiosa e coerção: dados preliminares / Food restrictions for religious motivation and coercion: preliminary results

Introdução: A Bioética deve ser entendida como sendo uma reflexão complexa, compartilhada e interdisciplinar sobre as ações que envolvem a vida e o viver. Todos os aspectos, inclusive os espirituais devem ser contemplados nesta reflexão. Objetivo: Verificar a influência de motivações espirituais nas restrições alimentares relatadas por pacientes internados em um hospital geral universitário, assim como a percepção de coerção associada a esses aspectos. Método: Análise interina dos dados de 177 pacientes internados em um hospital geral universitário. Resultados: A maioria dos pacientes (89,3%) informou ter alguma prática religiosa. Com relação aos hábitos alimentares, 59,8% dos pacientes afirmaram ter alguma restrição, sendo que os motivos alegados foram: não gostar do alimento (35,0%); problemas de saúde (17,5%), e motivações religiosas (7,3%). Poucos pacientes (1,1%) afirmaram que ficariam constrangidos se perguntados a respeito de suas práticas religiosas. Conclusão: A expressão de coerção em relação às restrições alimentares não apresentou diferenças entre diferentes grupos de pacientes com e sem motivação religiosa. Os pacientes percebem que são ouvidos pela equipe de saúde, mas que suas opiniões não são consideradas com relação à alimentação.

Background: Bioethics should be understood as a complex, shared and interdisciplinary reflection about activities that involve life and living. All aspects, including spiritual issues, must be integrated in this discussion. Aim: To evaluate the influence of spiritual motivations in food restrictions reported by inpatients in a general university hospital and the perceived coercion associated with these aspects. Method: Interim analysis of a sample of 177 inpatients in a general university hospital. Results: Most patients (89.3%) reported religious practices. Regarding dietary habits, 59.8% patients reported food restrictions, and the alleged reasons were: disliking the food (35.0%), health problems (17.5%), and religious motivations (7.3%). Few patients (1.1%) said they would be embarrassed if asked about their religious practices. Conclusion: The expressed coercion related to food restriction did not differ between the different groups of patients with or without religious motivation. Patients perceive that they are asked by the health professionals about food restrictions but their points of view are not considered.