An e-Chart Review of Chaplains' Interventions and Outcomes: A Quality Improvement and Documentation Practice Enhancement Project

Relationships Between the Number of Chaplain Visits and Patient Characteristics: A Retrospective Review of a Large Suburban Midwest Hospital, USA

It is critical to understand the characteristics of patients who receive spiritual care through chaplain visits. This study evaluated 2373 records from chaplain visits provided to 1315 patients over a three-month period (March-May 2021) at a large suburban teaching hospital, Midwest, USA. Approximately 70% of patients received one chaplain visit. However, data revealed that when patients were admitted emergently, or received visits for reasons related to self-harm or suicidality, the frequency of chaplain visits significantly increased. This study suggests a need for spiritual care services for patients with emergency or mental health conditions. Furthermore, it highlights the need for further training and resources for chaplains to increase clinical competencies in providing specialized spiritual care support to specific patient populations.

Spiritual AIM: assessment and documentation of spiritual needs in patients with cancer

The chaplain is an essential member of the palliative care (PC) team, yet, standard methods to document chaplain assessments are lacking. The study team performed a retrospective analysis of chaplaincy documentation in an outpatient PC clinic at an academic medical center over 6 months (April 2017 to October 2017). The study team identified unique adult patients with cancer, then manually extracted variables from the electronic medical record. The primary objective was to assess the number of spiritual assessments documented by the chaplain. Secondary objectives included descriptive analysis of identified spiritual needs. Out of the 376 total patient encounters, 292 (77.8%) included documentation of a chaplain's spiritual assessment. The most frequent spiritual need was self-worth/community (n = 163, 55.8%).This study demonstrates that chaplains can effectively document Spiritual AIM-based screening and assessment. Moreover, this may be an effective documentation method across institutions to facilitate chaplain-based data.

Chart Audit of Spiritual Care Documentation: Continuous Quality Improvement

Eight spiritual care practitioners at an acute care teaching hospital undertook a systematic chart audit of their documentation practices in the patient electronic health record. The purpose was to evaluate their practices using the standards of their professional association and regulatory college. A preliminary "mock audit" was essential for the overall success of the audit. Plans for ongoing chart audits will lead to continuous quality improvement. A limitation was that their manager acted as both improvement coach and performance evaluator.

Assessing Spiritual Well-Being in Residential Aged Care: An Exploratory Review

With the emerging incorporation of spiritual care into the allied health stream, there is a need for a clear and validated process of spiritual review that can be understood across multidisciplinary teams. The aim and purpose of this paper was to critically review the literature regarding spiritual screening, history-taking and assessment, and explore the merits of developing a brief instrument focussed on assessing and improving the spiritual well-being of consumers within residential aged care. Following an exploratory review of the literature, the results indicate that effective processes are noted regarding the triage and identification of the needs and spiritual assessment of consumers; however, many of these tools are overly religious in content, unwieldy in size, or not specifically aimed at identifying the immediate crisis confronting the consumer. It is recommended that an assessment instrument be developed which is communicable across all allied health practitioners (including spiritual carers), which may contribute towards a taxonomy of common consumer conditions, and which will enable the development and delivery of more targeted care plans.