Conceptualizing spiritual care in three diverse hospices: A phenomenological study.
Item
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Title
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Conceptualizing spiritual care in three diverse hospices: A phenomenological study.
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Identifier
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AAI9807906
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identifier
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9807906
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Creator
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Batten, Diana Sisson.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Irwin Epstein
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Date
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1997
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Social Work | Religion, General | Health Sciences, Nursing
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Abstract
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Recent efforts to reintegrate religion and spirituality within social work have been hampered by the absence of empirically grounded conceptual frameworks for its incorporation into education and practice. Nonetheless, studies have documented the linkage between religion/spirituality and terminal illness. Hospice, where spiritual care is incorporated into holistic health care, draws upon this linkage.;This qualitative study, utilizing phenomenological methodology, seeks to describe and conceptualize how spiritual care is rendered in three hospices by identifying its meanings and practices. In addition to agency observation and review of agency documents, interviews were conducted with staff and volunteers who identified themselves as spiritual care providers in the hospices which serve clients with predominantly either Roman Catholic, Protestant or Jewish religious affiliations.;Grounded theory methodology was utilized in a cross-case content analysis of the interviews. Individual and organizational meanings and practices of spiritual care emerged from this analysis. An analysis of the practices, utilizing a matrix of psychospiritual care, yielded a spiritual care process with identifiable phases and foci of activity.;Cross-agency analysis of these meanings and practices revealed major differences in the level of diversity in worker and client religious, spiritual orientations; and in the agencies' spiritual care cultures. Striking similarities were evident, however, in the use by workers and clients of religion and/or spirituality as a coping resource; and in the dynamics of the spiritual care process. A single conceptualization of spiritual care emerged, uniting its constituent elements.;Implications of this study for the integration of religion and spirituality within social work education, practice and research were discussed.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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D.S.W.
