Patient Reported Outcome Measure of Spiritual Care as Delivered by Chaplains

Abstract

Chaplains are employed by health organizations around the world to support patients in recognizing and addressing their spiritual needs. There is currently no generalizable measure of the impact of these interventions and so the clinical and strategic worth of chaplaincy is difficult to articulate. This article introduces the Scottish PROM, an original five-item patient reported outcome measure constructed specifically to address this gap. It describes the validation process from its conceptual grounding in the spiritual care literature through face and content validity cycles. It shows that the Scottish PROM is internally consistent and unidimensional. Responses to the Scottish PROM show strong convergent validity with responses to the Warwick and Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale, a generic well-being scale often used as a proxy for spiritual well-being. In summary, the Scottish PROM is fit for purpose. It measures the outcomes of spiritual care as delivered by chaplains in this study. This novel project introduces an essential and original breakthrough; the possibility of generalizable international chaplaincy research.

When holistic care is not holistic enough: The role of sexual health in mental health settings

“…Rather, it could be beneficial to introduce the concept of a sexual health “champion” for example, where one or two colleagues attend specialist training per area and then cascade knowledge and training throughout their local area. The idea of champions originated with dementia care in Scotland, and their success led to the role being used in a variety of contexts from self‐harm and continence training (NHS Education for Scotland, ) to the evaluation of chaplaincy services (Snowden & Telfer, ).…”

An Australian study on the benefits of pastoral care to aged care residents in Christian affiliated homes

“…Quality of PC received was measured by five items taken from existing scales (Flannelly, Galek, Tannenbaum, & Handzo, ; Snowden & Telfer, ): (a) I was listened to, (b) I was able to talk about what was on my mind, (c) My situation was understood, (d) My faith/beliefs were valued and (e) I was treated with dignity and respect; Cronbach's alpha = .81.…”

“…Benefits of PC received were measured using the Scottish PROM (Snowden & Telfer, ) which has five items: After meeting with the PC practitioner I felt… (a) I could be honest with myself about how I was really feeling, (b) Anxious, (c) I had a positive outlook on my situation, (d) In control of my life and (e) A sense of peace; Cronbach's alpha = .71.…”

“…A positive step forward has been the development of the Scottish Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM), a short measure to capture the outcomes of chaplain interventions (Snowden & Telfer, ). A psychometric study of the measure, conducted with a sample of 103 patients in Scotland, confirmed that it is a reliable and valid tool for measuring the outcomes of chaplaincy services (Snowden & Telfer, ). The measure was then used in the aforementioned multi‐hospital study by Lobb et al ().…”

Spiritual care is stagnating in general practice

“…Snowden has developed a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) to both facilitate spiritual conversations and measure the impact of spiritual interventions. 6 It is agreed that there is an ongoing need for training but the above evidence suggests the tide is turning on spiritual care and assessing its impact in general practice in the UK.…”