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Assessing the Impact of Provider Training and Perceived Barriers on the Provision of Spiritual Care: a Mixed Methods Study

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Abstract

The current study evaluated formal training around spiritual care for healthcare providers and the relationships between that training, perceived barriers to spiritual care, and frequency of inquiry around spiritual topics. A mixed methods explanatory sequential design was used. Quantitative methods included an online survey administered to providers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. Main and interactive effects of formal training and barriers to spiritual care on frequency of inquiry around spiritual topics were assessed with two-way ANOVA. Qualitative follow-up explored provider strategies to engage spiritual topics. Among 340 quantitative participants, most were female (82.1%) or White (82.6%) with over one-half identifying as religious (57.5%). The majority were nurses (64.7%) and less than 10% of all providers (n = 26) indicated formal training around spiritual care. There were main effects on frequency of inquiry around spiritual topics for providers who indicated “personal discomfort” as a barrier (p < 0.001), but not formal training (p = 0.526). Providers who indicated “personal discomfort” as a barrier inquired about spirituality less frequently, regardless of receiving formal training (M = 8.0, SD = 1.41) or not (M = 8.76, SD = 2.96). There were no interactive effects between training and “may offend patients” or “personal discomfort” (p = 0.258 and 0.125, respectively). Qualitative analysis revealed four strategies with direct and indirect approaches: (1) permission-giving, (2) self-awareness/use-of-self, (3) formal assessment, and (4) informal assessment. Training for providers should emphasize self-awareness to address intrapersonal barriers to improve the frequency and quality of spiritual care for cancer patients.

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Data Availability

Data used in the current study can be made available by the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Intramural Research Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J Solove Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Julia McGee

  2. The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA

    Elizabeth Palmer Kelly

  3. School of Medicine, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Joseph Kelly-Brown

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Palliative Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA

    Erin Stevens & Brittany L. Waterman

  5. Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA

    Brittany L. Waterman & Timothy M. Pawlik

Authors
  1. Julia McGee
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  2. Elizabeth Palmer Kelly
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  3. Joseph Kelly-Brown
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  4. Erin Stevens
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  5. Brittany L. Waterman
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  6. Timothy M. Pawlik
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy M. Pawlik.

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Ethics Approval

The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of The Ohio State University Institutional Review Board (protocol #2019C0167).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included for both the quantitative and qualitative phase of this study.

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Participants signed informed consent regarding publishing their data.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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McGee, J., Palmer Kelly, E., Kelly-Brown, J. et al. Assessing the Impact of Provider Training and Perceived Barriers on the Provision of Spiritual Care: a Mixed Methods Study. J Canc Educ 38, 301–308 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02115-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-021-02115-x

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