Spiritual Needs and Spiritual Wellbeing of Palliative Care Patients

Patients with chronic or life-threatening diseases but also stressed or old people have specific existential/spiritual needs which are in most cases not known by healthcare professionals. These needs can be assessed in a standardised manner for example with the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ-20). The intensity of spiritual needs is influenced by cultural and religious issues, personality, mood states, course of disease, life situation and thus place of treatment. However, spiritual wellbeing and spiritual needs are only marginally related; both are more or less independent dimensions with differentiated meanings as potential resources. Healthcare professionals may be the first to perceive such unmet needs and specifically support patients. For that purpose, the development of spiritual care competencies is necessary.