Hospital Stress and the Patient’s Perception
of the Importance of Spiritual Needs
Irene Schomus

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among a patient's hospital stress, seriousness of illness, and religious orientation and the change in the patient's perception of the importance of spiritual needs. A four-part questionnaire was used to survey a sample of 84 hospitalized patients. Instruments used to collect the data were: the Hospital Stress Scale; the Spiritual Needs Inventory; the Religious Orientation Scale; and the Seriousness of Illness Rating Scale.

Results of the analysis showed that patients reported a significant increase in their perception of the importance of spiritual needs during hospitalization as compared with before. Also, those respondents experiencing more hospital stress were more likely to increase in perception of importance of spiritual needs during hospitalization. There were no significant results which supported the hypotheses that either seriousness of illness or extrinsic religious orientation were related to more of an increase in perception of importance of spiritual needs during hospitalization. Multivariate analysis revealed that those patients with increased hospital stress, those who indicated spiritual needs as low in importance before hospitalization, frequent church attendees, and those with indiscriminately pro religious orientation were more likely to indicate an increase in importance of spiritual needs during hospitalization.

Recommendations included further research to more adequately define the concept of spiritual needs and to document appropriate nursing interventions for those patients who are in need of spiritual care.