Hospitalized Asian patients and their spiritual needs: developing a model of spiritual care.

OBJECTIVES

A paucity of research has examined the relationship between addressing the spiritual needs of hospitalized Asians and their overall satisfaction with service provision. This study examined this relationship, in tandem with the effects of eight potential mediators, to develop a model of spiritual care for older hospitalized Asians.

METHOD

Structural equation modeling was used with a national sample of Asians (N = 805), age 50 and above, who were consecutively discharged from hospitals over a 12-month period.

RESULTS

The relationship between spiritual needs and satisfaction was fully mediated by five variables: nurses, physicians, the discharge process, visitors, and the admissions process.

DISCUSSION

As the first study to develop and test a model of spiritual care for older hospitalized Asians, the findings provide practitioners with the information to target their efforts on the most important organizational areas that facilitate more effective, culturally relevant service delivery to members of this population.