Although it can be difficult to find a common definition, one way of understanding spiritual care, also described as “contemplative care,” is that it responds to basic universal human needs - needs that are not necessarily religious, nor limited to end-of-life concerns.

Contemplative Spiritual Care addresses Universal Human Needs

• Understand and transcend suffering
• Find a source of comfort, peace or refuge
• Experience a genuine connection with others
• Find meaning in life, and illness and dying

These spiritual needs, if unacknowledged or unmet, can be the primary source of suffering for a patient, exacerbating symptoms of physical pain and emotional distress.

Contemplative Spiritual Care provides Essential Professionals Skills

There is a growing recognition that addressing spiritual needs is crucial in the care for the dying. Yet, few medical and nursing training programs have experienced faculty available to teach contemplative approaches authentically, and most do not offer the time required to fully explore these issues and develop the skills needed to adequately address these needs.

Everyday, health care professionals face a range and depth of suffering for which they have had little or no training:

• What can I do or offer when I do not know what to say?
• How can I prevent becoming overwhelmed by the loss I witness?
• How can I be open, present and compassionate, yet get all the work done?
• How do I speak about death with my patients, their families and children?
• How can I facilitate and ease the process of letting go for patients and their loved ones? Is there a way to help them re-connect with their own inner strength to cope with their situation?
• Is there a more positive way to view death, and to prepare for it?

We often fail to fully acknowledge all aspects of human experience, including spiritual needs, especially at the most critical times in a person’s life - as they face illness and death.

Contemplative Spiritual Care strengthens our Inner Resources

The approach of spiritual care offered in this program comes from an understanding that the sources of strength, confidence, meaning and kindness are already deep within both the patient and healthcare professional. It does not call on the health care professional to offer their own life solutions, but rather to be fully present, with compassionate attention and an open heart, and to trust that in this atmosphere of acceptance those who are suffering can reconnect with their own sources of strength, meaning and hope.

When we bring this atmosphere of clear presence, confidence and kindness into patients’ rooms, we can disarm their fears, inspire a deep peace within and enable them to find their own life wisdom, whatever that may be.

Training in Contemplative Spiritual Approaches Enhances Care

Education that recognizes and addresses the deeper understanding of the spiritual dimension and mystery of living and dying, as well as the spiritual and deeply human aspect of caregiving will lead to better care for the patient and better support for the individual healthcare provider to transform difficult situations, overcome feelings of isolation and exhaustion that so many report.