Application and Implementation of the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire in Spiritual Care Processes

Abstract

The Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) was developed to assess patients’ unmet spiritual, existential and psychosocial needs in a standardized way. It is first of all a resource-oriented diagnostic instrument that allows both communication and documentation. This chapter describes its application and implementation on patients’ unmet spiritual needs in spiritual care processes. This implementation can be described in five phases resulting in a Support Plan and subsequent reevaluation processes of whether at all and how a person’s spiritual needs are met. The Support Plan could be structured according to the main topics of the instrument. Concrete activities are provided as examples of what can be part of a “spiritual tool box”. These should be consented to by the patients as the spiritual tool box does not aim to make something, but to talk with the patients and encourage them to choose the direction the process can take.