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The Spiritual Needs and Resources of Hospitalized Primary Care Patients

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Abstract

Previous studies have recognized the importance of hospitalized primary care patients’ spiritual issues and needs. The sources patients consult to address these spiritual issues, including the role of their attending physician, have been largely unstudied. We sought to study patients’ internal and external resources for addressing spiritual questions, while also exploring the physician’s role in providing spiritual care. Our multicenter observational study evaluated 326 inpatients admitted to primary care physicians in four midwestern hospitals. We assessed how frequently these patients identified spiritual concerns during their hospitalization, the manner in which spiritual questions were addressed, patients’ desires for spiritual interaction, and patient outcome measures associated with spiritual care. Nearly 30% of respondents (referred to as “R/S respondents”) reported religious struggle or spiritual issues associated specifically with their hospitalization. Eight-three percent utilized internal religious coping for dealing with spiritual issues. Chaplains, clergy, or church members visited 54% of R/S respondents; 94% found those visits helpful. Family provided spiritual support to 45% of R/S respondents. Eight percent of R/S respondents desired, but only one patient actually received, spiritual interaction with their physician, even though 64% of these patients’ physicians agreed that doctors should address spiritual issues with their patients. We conclude that inpatients quite commonly utilize internal resources and quite rarely utilize physicians for addressing their spiritual issues. Spiritual caregiving is well received and is primarily accomplished by professionals, dedicated laypersons, or family members. A significantly higher percentage of R/S patients desire spiritual interaction with their physician than those who actually receive it.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. Srinivas Kandrakonda, who was instrumental in data collection and preliminary data analysis; Jennifer Hughes, who performed all data entry and participated in team discussions of study design and implementation; Melissa Melton and Victoria Rowden, for editorial assistance; Marcia Ellis, for her help in data collection; and Drs. James Campbell and Jeffrey Belden, who supervised the Columbia, MO branch of the study, as well as Stephanie Beamer, who acted as research assistant in Columbia. We also wish to acknowledge the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, who provided grant support for the project. Finally, we wish to thank the Departments of Family and Community Medicine and Internal Medicine at the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, who supported Dr. Ellis as a visiting scholar in preparation for this project; and especially Drs. Bernard Ewigman, Farr Curlin, and George Fitchett, for their personal and scholarly contributions to the project.

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Correspondence to Mark R. Ellis.

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Ellis, M.R., Thomlinson, P., Gemmill, C. et al. The Spiritual Needs and Resources of Hospitalized Primary Care Patients. J Relig Health 52, 1306–1318 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-012-9575-z

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