Implementing Spiritual Care in Inpatient Palliative Care (SCPC)

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Heart Failure; Cancer; Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Lateral Sclerosis
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Spiritual Needs Questionnaire

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 100

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Germany
  • North Rhine-Westphalia
    • Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 48149
      • University hospital Muenster

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• 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.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 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.

Exclusion Criteria:

• 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.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
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; 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.
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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Recordation of needs for general / specialized spiritual care in palliative care	Recordation of needs for general / specialized spiritual care in palliative care consultation service and palliative ward of a university tertiary care hospital.	6 months
Differences in use and outcomes comparing standardised and non-standardised evaluation of spiritual care needs (comparison with retrospective data).	s. title	6 months
Examination of further descriptive and analysing comparisons of retrospective data and intervention group.	s. title	6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital Muenster
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Philipp Lenz, Prof. Dr. med., University hospital Muenster

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 31, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 4, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 4, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): January 16, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 12, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 9, 2026
• Last Verified: November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Nervous System Diseases; Cardiovascular Diseases; Pathologic Processes; Heart Diseases; Neuromuscular Diseases; Chronic Disease; Disease Attributes; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Lung Diseases; Lung Diseases, Obstructive; Neurodegenerative Diseases; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Neoplasms; Heart Failure; Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Motor Neuron Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2023-465-b-S

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No