Quality of Spiritual Care at the End of Life: What the Family Expects for Their Loved One

Spiritual care at the End of Life (EOL) is a “keystone” investment at any Regional Tertiary Acute Care Hospital. Spiritual Care Departments need to demonstrate quality indicators in the provision of spiritual care at an EOL not only for their patients, but to satisfy family expectations of that care for their loved one. A fixed choice survey instrument using a structured interview via telephone was utilized for 202 criterion families who had lost a loved one. Three domains surfaced: (1) Families retained traditional chaplain role expectations of Priestly/Liturgical (78.6%) and Pastoral/Shepherd (67.5%); (2) Expectations of an expanded chaplain role after the EOL (50%); and, (3) Traditional spiritual care services regardless of one’s religion or spirituality: Comfort and care, emotional support (96%); active listening (96.5%); the Chaplain as a reminder of God’s presence (93.6%); prayer (96%); scripture reading (69.3%); and ritual/sacramental anointing of the sick (71.3%).