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Exploring Patients’ and Chaplains’ Perspectives About a Spiritual Care Program in the Primary Care Setting

  • Original Research: Qualitative Research
  • Published:
Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Spirituality is an important component of social and cultural identity that influences health-related beliefs, decision-making, and coping behaviors. Despite the importance of addressing spirituality in healthcare, research about its impact is limited, especially in the primary care setting.

Objective

This study aimed to explore patients’ and chaplains’ experiences of receiving or providing spiritual care in the primary care setting.

Methods

We conducted an in-depth interview qualitative research study. Participants included patient informants, a chaplain, and chaplains-in-training who participated in a spiritual care program at a primary care clinic. Interviews were transcribed and coded. Conventional qualitative research content analysis was performed.

Results

Eleven interviews were conducted — 7 with patient informants, 1 with a chaplain, and 3 with chaplains-in-training. Informants reported that in their experience spiritual care increased trust in their provider, made them feel safe to ask or share anything, improved their satisfaction with care, helped sustain healthy behavior change, and improved coping with chronic illness. Participants specifically attributed these positive experiences to chaplains’ ability to respect and attend to patients’ spirituality, create a safe space, help patients see the connection between their spirituality and health, and help patients tap into their own spirituality as a healthy means of coping.

Conclusions

Spiritual care, when integrated into the primary care setting, has the potential, according to the report of our informants, to help achieve important health-related objectives, such as increased trust in their providers, sustained healthy behavior change, and happiness in spite of chronic illness. Now, more than ever, when our society is hurting from mistrust of our profession secondary to disinformation and discrimination, spiritual care has an important role to play in our efforts to gain our patients’ trust so that we can support their healing.

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Acknowledgements

We appreciate the contributions of Rev. William E. Johnson, Jr., M.Div., who helped recruit patients, and Gail Geller, M.H.S., Sc.D., for technical guidance with qualitative research.

Funding

Funding which supported this research came from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Dean’s Summer Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, D.C., USA

    Vignesh Sadras MD

  2. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Joseph A. Carrese MD, MPH, FACP & Macy L. E. Gatti MD

  3. Johns Hopkins Division of General Internal Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Joseph A. Carrese MD, MPH, FACP

  4. Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Joseph A. Carrese MD, MPH, FACP

  5. Johns Hopkins Department of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Andrea Fitz BS & Paula Teague DMin, MBA, BCC

  6. Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Macy L. E. Gatti MD

Authors
  1. Vignesh Sadras MD
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  2. Joseph A. Carrese MD, MPH, FACP
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  3. Andrea Fitz BS
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  4. Macy L. E. Gatti MD
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  5. Paula Teague DMin, MBA, BCC
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vignesh Sadras MD.

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The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

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Sadras, V., Carrese, J.A., Fitz, A. et al. Exploring Patients’ and Chaplains’ Perspectives About a Spiritual Care Program in the Primary Care Setting. J GEN INTERN MED (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-024-08669-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-024-08669-y

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