El acompañamiento espiritual en cuidados paliativos

Abstract

Healthcare professionals, and specially the ones in oncology and palliative care, are frequently questioned about our patients’ suffering. The biomedical model is not enough for understanding and caring for it. Therefore, the perspective needs to be widened through a more open vision that includes our spiritual dimension. Spirituality is a human universal, that expresses as the dynamism that boosts our infinite desire of plenitude and happiness, that characterizes human condition and that is expressed in the net of relationships stablished by each person. Severe illness and proximity to death are opportunities of an opening to this dimension and of healing. Professionals that know this process can approach from hospitality, presence and compassion, and accompany patients in this journey. In this paper, we try to explore in a synthesized way, what is understood by spirituality, clinical spirituality, spiritual resources and needs, the journey of a person going through a suffering, loose or dying process, and the attitudes and tools of professionals to explore and accompany in this difficult and not very busy path.