Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: October | Volume: 9 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 144-151
A Right or Privilege: Provision of Spiritual Care to Patients within Health Care Setting in Northern Ghana
Iddrisu Mohammed1, Yidana Adadow2, Shamsu-Deen Ziblim2
1Department of Public Health, School of Allied Health Science, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana
2Department of Community Health and Family Medicine, School of Medicine and Health Science, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana.
Corresponding Author: Yidana Adadow
ABSTRACT
Spiritual care recognizes and responds to the needs of the human spirit in the face of ill health or sadness. These include but not limited to the need for a meaning of existence, self-worth, express oneself, faith, support and perhaps for rites, prayer, sacrament or simply for a sensitive listener. The study assesses the role of health care providers in providing the emotional and spiritual needs of the patients in adult wards. The study adopted the mix method approach. The study reveals a mean value of 4.04 meaning nurses regularly listen actively to patients talk about their religious/spiritual beliefs, strengths, and beliefs about God. Data from the study further reveal that nurses regularly give patients or caretakers the opportunity to talk about God and support coming from God. The study further revealed the following as the barrier to providing emotional/spiritual care to patients admitted to the adult ward of the hospital; Because of different beliefs of the staffs and the patients, most of the patients do not believe in superstition, lack of communication skills in giving this care, Lack of pastors and imams in the hospitals, multiple beliefs of the patients. Thus, it is recommended that policymakers like the government and the Ghana health service should be encouraged to capture the spiritual needs of patients in the management protocols. The Tamale central hospital should employ people who are well versed in spiritual health care in the hospital. The hospital should employ an Imam and a Pastor to complement the nurse’s role in taking care of the spiritual needs of the patient.
Key words: Spiritual Care, Patients, Religion, Emotions, Nurses,