The topic of death causes uneasiness in many, as a result 81% of people die without a

written preference of arrangements after death. Statistics indicate that only 4% of the

population die in the way planned and this low figure may be due to avoidance of discussing death.

Spirituality can have many meanings, ranging from the concept of religion or faith to the

feeling of belonging and wholeness of an individual. Studies have found improvement in the quality of life once spiritual needs are fulfilled (Catterall et al 1998, Balboni et al 2007,

Delgado-Guay et al 2011). On the other hand, unmet spiritual needs results in elevated

number of admissions into hospital.

 

 

Assessment of spiritual requirements:

 

This is typically conducted via a series of open ended questions, for example Hegarty 2007

recommends the use of the following three questions:

- What nourishes you

- What feeds your spirit

- Where do you find strength in hard times

 

Other forms of assessment include the HOPE approach, which consists of a series of questions that are related to certain areas:

H- where sources of hope, love, strength and love arise

from.(Anandarajah and Hight 2001)

O- organisation of religion and its meaning to the patient

P-personal spirituality practices

E- Effect on end of life decisions

This approach was designed to be adopted on Christians and may be difficult to be

utilised in individuals with different culture or religion.