Palliative care spirituality

October 7, 2009

The power of palliative care spirituality

New research shows patients benefit from spiritual well-being of care-givers

In the final days of life, the spiritual well-being of patients is significantly affected by the spirituality of their palliative and hospice care provider, according to new qualitative research by a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary.

Shane Sinclair, a chaplain at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, explored the spiritual journeys of the care-givers and the settings in which dying occurs. His findings form the basis of his doctoral thesis which has been nominated for a Governor General’s Gold Medal.

“My own entrance into the culture of palliative and hospice care came through my work as a professional chaplain caring for dying individuals and their families,” says Sinclair. “It wasn’t darkness, depression, morbidity or grief that greeted me every day on the job—it was this mysterious community of care-givers and an energy that pervaded the place and the patients within it.”

Health care providers who participated in the study described such energy as a type of spirituality that they carried with them and infused within their patient care. Registered nurse and palliative care worker Patty Power participated in Sinclair’s study and believes there is a strong spiritual element in her job. “We often become the medicine when the medicine and technology fail,” says Power. “Our presence becomes healing to the patient and that simple act becomes spiritual care because it informs another of their value as a person.”

“This end-of-life care we provide is an art. It is a source of beauty that can really move the spirit: it’s not about making beautiful the ugliness of dying—rather it is about recognizing the inherent beauty in each person.”

Sinclair says care-givers often possess a unique perspective on spirituality. “It’s not just because they reside in close proximity between this world and whatever might lie beyond, but because they are privy to the wisdom of the dying, of what a meaningful life really looks like.”

Noted expert and medical doctor Balfour Mount, who is considered to be the father of palliative care in North America, says Sinclair’s research will go a long way in addressing deficiencies in end-of-life care. “The spiritual domain, which is so critical to the success of understanding human suffering, is the least well defined. Shane has really broken new ground with his research and takes us to a new level of understanding as well as offering a clearer appreciation of the experience of those who work with the dying on a daily basis.”

Sinclair hopes his findings will provide suggestions for palliative care practice, education and research. While the World Health Organization, professional health care bodies and patients themselves recognize the importance of addressing spiritual needs at the end of life, care-givers are often left with the weighty task of addressing these central needs with little training. Sinclair hopes to build on his research and develop tools for current and future health care providers and organizations to help them in caring for both the physical and spiritual needs of their patients.