March 2010
A valuable contribution to spirituality and health care with new book, Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care by Christina Puchalski, MD and Betty Ferrell, RN, PhD.

The field of palliative care has experienced a surge in interest in spirituality as an important aspect of caring for seriously ill and dying patients. While spirituality has been generally recognized as an essential dimension of palliative care, uniformity of spiritual care practice has been lacking across health care settings.

In 2009, more than forty spiritual and palliative care experts served on a national consensus conference committee to improve the quality of spiritual care at the end-of-life. Those who gathered included Spiritual Directors International executive director Liz Budd Ellmann, MDiv; and members Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD; Carolyn Jacobs, MSW, PhD; Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAAN; and Sharon Stanton, MS, BSN, RN, Together they discussed guidelines for incorporating spirituality into palliative care. Their consensus findings form the basis of Making Health Care Whole.

This important new resource provides much-needed definitions and charts a common language for addressing spiritual care across the disciplines of medicine, nursing, social work, chaplaincy, psychology, and other groups. It presents models of spiritual care that are broad and inclusive, and provides tools for screening, assessment, care planning, and interventions.

Both a scholarly review and a practical resource with specific recommendations to improve spiritual care in clinical practice, Making Health Care Whole will benefit hospices and palliative care programs in hospitals, home care services, and long-term care services. It will be a valuable addition to the curriculum at seminaries, schools of theology, spiritual direction programs, and medical and nursing schools.

Praise
"This book is an important advance in understanding the relevance of spirituality in health care, particularly in palliative care. It is a lucid exposition into how we bring respect, wisdom, and compassion into caring for those who are seriously ill and those who are facing death."
-Joan Halifax, founder, the Upaya Institute
 
Links

• Click to see additional resources for "Spiritual Direction and Health Care"
• Read the October 9, 2009, blog post describing the national concensus conference, "New guidelines include value of spirituality at the end-of-life"
• April 12, 2010: SDI Spirituality and Health Care Institute in San Francisco, California, USA, with keynote Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN
• Order the new book, Making Health Care Whole: Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care