Implementing Spiritual Care in Inpatient Palliative Care

NCT06206551 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 2023-465-b-S
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this observational study is to is to ascertain the spiritual needs of palliative patients in a standardized manner using the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire and to promptly address those needs by (specialized) spiritual care. To determine whether the effort of implementing the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire on a sustainable basis on the one hand brings the expected benefit to the patients and on the other hand can be provided by the pastoral care personnel, at Muenster University Hospital (specialized) spiritual care interventions will be documented in detail and retrospectively and prospectively collected data will be compared.

Conditions

Cancer; Heart Failure; Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Lateral Sclerosis

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Feasibility of standardized and evidence-based recordation and implementation of Spiritual Care in Palliative Care

  Feasibility of standardized and evidence-based recordation and implementation of Spiritual Care in Palliative Care based on the number of interventions provided by general and/or specialized Spiritual Care for patients with ascertained needs detected by the validated Spiritual Needs Questionnaire in German language.

  6 months

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Recordation of needs for general / specialized spiritual care in palliative care

  6 months

• Differences in use and outcomes comparing standardised and non-standardised evaluation of spiritual care needs (comparison with retrospective data).

  6 months

• Examination of further descriptive and analysing comparisons of retrospective data and intervention group.

  6 months

Study Arms (2)

Prospective patients

Patients who are on the palliative care ward or who are being treated by the palliative consultation service at the University Hospital Muenster.

Other: Spiritual Needs Questionnaire

Restrospective patients

Patients who were on the palliative care ward or were treated by the palliative consultation service at University Hospital Muenster during the same period in the previous year.

Interventions

Spiritual Needs Questionnaire OTHER

This questionnaire captures the spiritual needs of patients and is used in its short version (screener).This questionnaire is used as part of standard treatment for all palliative care inpatients.

Prospective patients

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population consists of patients assigned to general and specialized Palliative Care due to justifying indications like progressive malign and non-malign diseases that need inpatient treatment provided by either counselling services or on palliative ward.

You may qualify if:

• All individual indication for general and specialised Palliative Care in clinical setting/routine (e.g.):
• Progressive, malign tumours
• Progressive, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Patients with progressive disease and limited life expectancy (\< ca. 12 months)
• Patients attended by Palliative Caregivers in counselling services or on palliative ward
• Life expectancy \> 2 weeks
• Sufficient comprehension of German language and writing that allows an autonomous or supported completion of the questionnaire.
• Existence of an independently signed written consent.

You may not qualify if:

• Severe cognitive impairment
• capacity for consent lacking or impaired
• impaired comprehension of German language and writing that would not allow an autonomous or supported completion of the questionnaire.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital Muenster: lead

Study Sites (1)

University Hospital Muenster

Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, 48149, Germany

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Neoplasms; Heart Failure; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Motor Neuron Disease

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Heart Diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases; Lung Diseases, Obstructive; Lung Diseases; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Chronic Disease; Disease Attributes; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Neuromuscular Diseases

Study Officials

• Philipp Lenz, Prof. Dr. med.

  University Hospital Muenster

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: COHORT
• Time Perspective: OTHER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 4, 2024
• First Posted: January 16, 2024
• Study Start: December 1, 2023
• Primary Completion: May 31, 2024
• Study Completion: December 31, 2024
• Last Updated: February 12, 2026

Record last verified: 2025-11

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

DE (1)