Spiritual Needs Assessment of a Muslim Patient

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Summary of Assessment
Spiritual Experience

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of a spiritual assessment conducted on a Muslim patient. The spiritual assessment tool will be used to evaluate the spiritual beliefs of the patient through direct interviews. Observations recorded from the assessment will be recorded as significant discoveries. Further, the paper will examine the effectiveness of the tool and recommend possible solutions in the future. Lastly, the paper will expound on the spiritual experiences learned from the patient’s assessment.

Summary of Assessment

The interview yielded results that demonstrated purity and prayers are integral parts of a Muslim’s life.

Significant Discoveries Made

Muslims must pray five times a day facing the direction of Mecca. Their faith also prohibits them from praying before they purify themselves. Purification requires people to wash their hands and feet with clean water in preparation for prayers. They also use a unique mat or a clean piece of clothing for kneeling.

In a hospital setting, most Muslim patients desire to observe their prayer life by praying five times a day. Healthcare providers should make sure that they offer the desired assistance, especially to bedridden patients. Water and a clean piece of bed sheet should be provided when necessary. Health care providers must also see to it that they recognize the direction of Mecca to aid the patient in preparing for prayers.

According to the Muslim culture, God entrusts human beings with bodies to be used appropriately for the achievement of salvation. Muslims consider that agony is a trial from God portrayed through suffering, sickness, and calamities. The Muslim religion does not allow its believers to eat any foods containing alcohol, pork, or animal meat with stock.

They believe that Christians, Jews, or Muslims should remove blood from meat when slaughtering. They also consider that apart from death and aging, all illnesses are curable even if medical applications do not invent cures. The Muslim faith believes in medical science and prayers for healing. Health care workers are highly looked upon as God’s instruments of healing. According to the Muslim faith, healing can only come from God since it starts with him.

Muslims accept death as a natural phase in life, which occurs at any time. This explains why Muslims do not believe in grieving the dead, but rather accepting death as God’s will and destiny for all human organisms. Medical procedures are performed on patients if there are prospects for a cure. On the contrary, extended ineffective medical procedures and suffering are not guaranteed.

The Muslim culture does not preserve the bodies of the dead in mortuaries but conducts burials immediately. Muslims heavily respect human bodies and stress the importance and necessities of the rituals observed before burials. People are also supposed to observe purity when dealing with the dead. Washing hands before and after handling the dead is very important in the Muslim culture. Bodies are handled gently, covered, and washed by people of the same sex.

Gender is a very significant aspect of Muslim society, especially in instances where both males and females came into contact. These beliefs are guided by cultural and religious guidelines regarding the purity of the body.

As regards these beliefs, Muslim patients highly value privacy, especially in cases where healthcare providers are of a different gender. In most cases, healthcare providers of the same gender as the patient are preferred, especially for women. All the same, in cases that health maintenance providers of the opposite gender enter patients’ rooms, they should give notifications so that individuals could put together their clothing.

Strengths

The patient provided information without any hesitations. The choice of an elderly patient exposed and familiar with the Islam religion ensured the accuracy of recorded information. Communication during the interview was satisfactory, and we did not take in any destruction whatsoever. The ability of the patient to speak in English also helped in yielding the desired results.

Future Changes

In the future, I would generate information from different clusters of patients in terms of age and gender. This would ensure that gender and age distinctions are made especially in the contemporary culture where cultural and religious beliefs are changing.

Barriers and Challenges

In applying this assessment tool, I felt that the questions were rather too general and single-sided. The tool guided me to gather up the patient’s thoughts and opinions about life and their beliefs but was not specific to their perspective on health care and alterations that could make them satisfied. To address this challenge in the future, I would include questions that aim at getting views on how to improve health care.

Spiritual Experience

My spiritual experience with the patient did not only withdraw my attention close to the Muslim faith but also about how to be a prayerful spirit. I was interested in the prayer life of the Muslim religion. Their beliefs of facing towards the direction of Mecca fascinated me.

I also recognized the importance of prayers for spiritual support and healing. Their respect and ways of treating the dead also made me aware of the importance of human life on land. This instrument has enabled me to understand the ethnic and religious backgrounds of Muslim patients. This will help me know what to do when offering health care.

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