Box 1.
Topic guide for patient focus groups.
| Preamble: Usually medical care focuses on the physical dimension of health, like controlling pain and other symptoms, but in this discussion, our interest is focused on those aspects of illness that affect you as a person and might cause you to consider the deeper questions of life. In this study, we define questions relating to meaning, purpose and how we cope with difficult aspects of life as spiritual questions, but this might not be the word you use. Please use whatever language you want in this discussion. |
| 1. In terms of your own illness experience, what are the deep questions you find yourself asking these days? |
| 2. Would you describe any of these deep questions as spiritual? If so, why? If not, why not? |
| 3. What does ‘spirituality’ mean to you? |
| 4. What does ‘spiritual care’ mean to you? |
| 5. Do you think spiritual care should be provided in healthcare? If so, why? If not, why not? |
| 6. In the healthcare setting, what sort of people could best support you with any deep emotional or spiritual questions you have? |
| 7. In your opinion, what should be the role of different people in providing spiritual support in healthcare? Discuss each of nurse, doctor, GP, chaplain, social worker, psychologist, volunteer and community faith leaders. Prompts: How could these people best support you? Who should initiate discussions of spirituality in healthcare? Why? |
| 8. Based on your own understanding of spirituality, what in your experience are the most helpful things a healthcare provider can do if a patient has spiritual concerns? Can you share an example of a caregiving interaction where you felt your spirituality was addressed? |
| Prompts: If yes, by whom? (Were they from palliative care?) When in your illness? What happened? What worked well? |
| If never experienced, why? (Prompts: staff time/interest, no one asked, did not want to, did not think appropriate to raise, etc.) |
| 9. What are the least helpful things a healthcare professional can do if a patient has spiritual concerns? Can you share an example of a caregiving interaction in a clinical setting where your spirituality was not addressed or where you were adversely affected? |
| 10. In your opinion as a patient, what are the most important areas of research to improve spiritual care? Prompts: What do you think would really improve the quality of spiritual care or help to better meet your needs? |
| 11. Is there anything we did not talk about which you think it would be useful to know? |