Page 4

Volume 1, Issue 1
October 1999

Center for Spiritual
Life and Wholeness
Loma Linda
University

Taking a spiritual history aaaaaa

Present experience and research in the practice of personal spiritual medicine suggests that questions relating to the patient's spiritual experience yield better answers when they are asked as an integral part of the personal social history. Since the taking of the personal social history is designed to capture information and feelings which are both immediate and cumulative, the process provides an ideal context for asking spiritual history questions of both immediate and cumulative interest, and also ultimate concern. Using the same interviewing approaches as in other history taking, the spiritual history questions can and should be simple and mostly open ended toward eliciting both baseline and in-depth information which reflects the patient's spiritual strengths and weaknesses. Health-care workers, through ongoing experience in spiritual history taking, will discover questions and question sequences which best fit their own style and structure of communication, as personalized for each patient. It is of utmost importance to get feedback from patients as to their feelings about being asked spiritual history questions and the kind of questions they are being asked. The questions being asked help achieve a better understanding of the patient's spiritual history if they cover numerous theoretical points of view such as philosophy, theology, physiology, psychology, and sociology.

Questions with a philosophical approach allow the practitioner to examine the essence, origin, nature, and value of the patient's spiritual beliefs and experiences. Information from the theological perspective gives the practitioner an understanding of the patient's beliefs about God and/or a higher being. This insight then allows a better comprehension of the patient's understanding of what motivates their beliefs about life and death as well as their consequences.

Usually considered a separate entity, the area of physiology is of vital importance in doing a spiritual history assessment. The physical realm is interwoven with the spiritual, mental, and emotional dimensions that influence one another which makes questions of this nature an important aspect of any spiritual history assessment.

The psychological aspect helps the practitioner evaluate the patient's mental processes, and how they go about reaching their conclusions to important questions such as what gives their lives meaning, where they look for authority and guidance, as well as their source of courage and hope.

The sociological aspect of the patient's spiritual history is very important as well. This aspect allows the practitioner to understand important social structures in the patient's life, including family, culture, religion, ethnicity, and other sociological influences that help shape the patient's world view and reality. Taking a spiritual history assessment, utilizing these five areas of theoretical understanding can help foster a greater understanding and appreciation between the patient and the health-care team to help ensure the best possible whole-person care available.

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