Effects of a Meaning-Centered Spiritual Care Training Program for Hospice Palliative Care Teams in South Korea: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND

Spiritual care is an essential part and a core component of quality palliative care, as identified by the World Health Organization. However, spiritual care training for hospice palliative care teams (HPCTs) is infrequent.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a meaning-centered spiritual care training program for HPCTs (McSCTP-HPCT).

METHODS

This study used a nonrandomized controlled design. The McSCTP-HPCT comprised 5 modules. The participants were HPCTs working in 15 national hospice institutions and were allocated to either the experimental group (n = 33) or the control group (n = 27) based on the participating institutions' preference. Three outcome variables were tested: spiritual care competency, spiritual care therapeutics, and compassion fatigue. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, χ 2 test, 1-way analysis of variance, and repeated-measures analysis of variance.

RESULTS

There was a significant difference in the interaction between measurement time and group assignment in spiritual care competency ( P = .002) and spiritual care therapeutics ( P = .038), whereas no significant difference was found for compassion fatigue ( P = .716).

CONCLUSION

The McSCTP-HPCT conducted in this study shows effectiveness in increasing the spiritual care competency and spiritual care therapeutics of HPCTs and may support the importance of spiritual care training.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The McSCTP-HPCTs adds to the scientific evidence on spiritual care and has the capacity to improve the quality of care for patients with a life-threatening illness.