Question

This week you have your choice of three discussion topics! Select the one that most interests you and answer the corresponding questions completely.

Remember to reference both the book or lesson, and an outside scholarly source.

Option #1:

You are the nurse assessing an Orthodox Jewish client with peptic ulcer. The client is strictly religious and refuses to eat the food provided at the health care facility.

1. Describe how you would further assess and provide care for this client.
2. What steps could you take to increase your cultural competence, if you were not familiar with this faith?

Option #2:

You are the nurse caring for a client with Crohn's disease. The client believes he is being punished by God. The client is spiritually distressed and cannot come to terms with the illness.

1. How would you respond to this client?
2. What are some identified risk factors for spiritual distress, and recommended interventions?

Option #3:

Describe a time in your clinical nursing practice when you have cared for a client of cultural, religious, or spiritual practices different from your own.

1. What were some of the challenges you faced caring for this client?
2. What steps did you take (or could you have taken) to ensure the patient received culturally/spiritually competent care?

Answer 1

OPTION #2:

Crohn's disease is a gastrointestinal tract disease caused by chronic inflammation in the digestive tract occurs with severe abdominal pain and tenderness.

Spiritual distress is a disruption in their own religious beliefs. A patient with spiritual distress loses hope to live, questions their own religious belief system and live a lonely life for the rest of their life and feels lack of comfort and strength. Assessing these type of patient in nursing practices is crucial for nurses. However, nurses are born to save the life of the people not only with the illness but also with those who are suffering from mental and social distress experiencing diseases.

HOW A NURSE RESPOND TO A SPIRITUAL DISTRESS PATIENT?

a) First of all listen to whatever the patient talks about their religious beliefs without any judgement or criticism. It is not easier for a patient with spiritual distress to accept about the disease till he builds a trust in the nurse. It takes time but the nurse should not interrupt the communication of the patient.

b) Allow the patient or caregivers to express all their emotions and thoughts about their spirituality without fixing their distress.

c) The nurse should give supportive environment to make the patient to talk about their beliefs.

RISK FACTORS FOR SPIRITUAL DISTRESS:

a) Age: Age is one of a factor of having spiritual distress which can be increased by age.

b) Gender: Females are more prone to have spiritual distress because always women are considered less supportive and have lack of courage to face the disease than their opposite counterparts.

c) Education: The people who are well educated are known to accept the consequence of disease rather than believing in religious beliefs.

d) Anxiety

e) Depression

RECOMMENDED INTERVENTIONS: Some of the recommended interventions to overcome spiritual distress is explaining below.

a) Maintain an ongoing relationship with patient and build trust

b) Respect and support the patient's spiritual faith and religious beliefs

c) Be aware of the patient's suffering and act ease suffering by showing compassion

d) Encourage the patient to pray to sort out immediate pain and sufferings.

e) Allow the patient to express their anger and fear

f) Help the patient to deal with feelings of guilt and increase the hope by supporting them

g) Try to solve the patient's problems by clear and accurate answers.

h) Give the patient time for meditation, prayer and relaxation

i) Help the patient to follow short-term goals

j) Help the patient to develop skills to deal with illness or lifestyle changes.

k) Provide privacy for client to do prayers alone or with others.

Answer 2

This is when the patients thinks that god has abandoned them and have question about there spiritual beliefs

Answer 3

Be mindful of how you spiritually is different than yours and try finding a nurse that has similar beliefs to them