title: Spiritual care: which is the best assessment tool for palliative settings?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although it is widely acknowledged that spiritual care is an important component of good palliative care, there remains a lack of confidence about it among healthcare providers. This paper analyses the benefits and drawbacks of using spiritual history-taking tools to address the problem, considering four of the most widely used tools-FICA, FAITH, SPIRITual and HOPE.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors conducted a literature review to establish the main themes identified as important to spirituality at the end of life. They then applied these findings to the spiritual history-taking tools to determine the extent to which they may be of assistance in identifying the spiritual needs of patients receiving palliative care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors conclude that spiritual history-taking tools do have an important role in identifying the spiritual needs of patients at the end of life, with the 'HOPE' tool most comprehensively addressing the spirituality themes identified as important within the healthcare literature.
authors.affiliation: Specialty Registrar, Palliative Medicine West Midlands Deanery, Compton Hospice.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blaber
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer Biomedical Ethics, University of Birmingham.
authors.forename: June
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jone
authors.affiliation: Lead Consultant, Severn Hospice, Telford.
authors.forename: Derek
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Willis
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D064946:Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: End-of-life care; HOPE; Spiritual care; Spirituality; Structured tools