Impact of Spiritual Care on Patient Outcomes at the End of Life

Spirituality plays an important role in the experience of illness for most patients, including its influence on patient well-being and the frequent presence of spiritual needs. Furthermore, spirituality impacts end-of-life medical decision-making. As a result of its multifaceted role in serious illness, spiritual care—recognition of and attention to patient spirituality within care—is a core domain of palliative care. Spiritual care is the responsibility of the multidisciplinary care team that is based on the generalist-specialist spiritual care model. Spiritual care, when present, is associated with improved outcomes for patient and families. Spiritual care is associated with better patient and family quality of life, and care satisfaction. It is also associated with a greater rate of transition to hospice care and less aggressive interventions at the end of life. Spiritual care remains infrequent at the end of life, with the frequent lack of spiritual care training for clinicians being a key factor. Further efforts are required to improve education in spiritual care and its integration into the care of patients and families with serious illness.