Helping colleagues to 'Just Ask'

Here at Trinity, we have developed a simple programme to help colleagues gain and grow in confidence in asking important questions to determine a patient’s spiritual care needs.

A patient or their carer may not even realise they have spiritual care needs, but by asking any or all of four simple open questions, we can determine what those needs are and plan for how they can be met as part of their holistic palliative care:

  • In difficult times, what keeps you going?
  • What would matter most to you as time becomes short?
  • What does ‘peaceful’ mean to you?
  • What brings meaning and purpose to your life?

Upon admission, all patients receive a spiritual care assessment to help us to meet their needs, and as we move to a standardised spiritual assessment for all patients, we will be providing colleagues with the toolkit they need to have these important conversions and move away from more ‘closed’ questions, such as ‘are you religious?’.

All clinical colleagues will be coming to spiritual care awareness session as part of their next Mandatory Clinical Skills day, where upon completion they will be presented with specially-designed Just Ask goodies so they will always have a prompt and reminder of the importance of spiritual care at Trinity Hospice.

Additional sessions will commence in the new year for medical staff, support staff and volunteers to ensure all colleagues feel supported in discussions with patients and carers.