This assignment requires you to interview one person and requires an analysis of your interview experience.

Part I: Interview

Select a patient, a family member, or a friend to interview. Be sure to focus on the interviewee’s experience as a patient, regardless of whom you choose to interview.

Review The Joint Commission resource found in topic materials, which provides some guidelines for creating spiritual assessment tools for evaluating the spiritual needs of patients. Using this resource and any other guidelines/examples that you can find, create your own tool for assessing the spiritual needs of patients.

Your spiritual needs assessment survey must include a minimum of five questions that can be answered during the interview. During the interview, document the interviewee’s responses.

The transcript should include the questions asked and the answers provided. Be sure to record the responses during the interview by taking detailed notes. Omit specific names and other personal information through which the interviewee can be determined.

Part II: Analysis

Write a 500-750 word analysis of your interview experience. Be sure to exclude specific names and other personal information from the interview. Instead, provide demographics such as sex, age, ethnicity, and religion. Include the following in your response:

1. What went well?
2. Were there any barriers or challenges that inhibited your ability to complete the assessment tool? How would you address these in the future or change your assessment to better address these challenges?
3. How can this tool assist you in providing appropriate interventions to meet the needs of your patient?
4. Did you discover that illness and stress amplified the spiritual concern and needs of your interviewee? Explain your answer with examples.

Submit both the transcript of the interview and the analysis of your results. This should be submitted as one document. The interview transcript does not figure into the word count.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, 

Comment 1

My evaluation of the United States health care system leaves me concerned for our future generations. According to healthypeople.org there are three components to gaining access to health care in the U.S. These include having health insurance, access to health services and timely care. It is estimated that 44 million Americans are uninsured and another 38 million Americans do not have adequate health insurance. Not having health insurance can affect gaining access into the healthcare system and cause financial burden to those in need of service. Often times these people go without seeking care for conditions that could have been avoided. This can pose a greater risk for those who have to support a family. Even for those who have adequate insurance may experience a hard time to get an appointment or procedure done in a timely manner. There can also be gaps in their insurance that make it hard to gain access. Patients may be referred out of state to address a medical need that is not offered in their current location. This again can be financially difficult for the patient in need (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], 2018). In 2012, the U.S spend 2.8 trillion dollars on the healthcare system and yet there was still a poor outcome (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). Healthcare reform was implemented in 2010 in order to help patient gain access to affordable healthcare. It has helped more than 20 million people get insurance. This was a necessary step in order for the United States to gain control of the issues listed above (American Public Health Association [APHA], 2018).

Comment 2

October 01, 2013 was the very first day that Americans were able to sign up for private health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) act was to provide tax credits to cover portions of the cost of coverage. Under the ACA nobody was to be denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Medicaid and  was available to low income families and families with children could apply for the children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Under the ACA the doctors where held accountable to quality not quantity of patient care.

The ACA created the National Prevention Strategy, a guide for the country to achieve, in the most effective way, improved health and well-being (Healthy Americans, 2013). The new ACA law included the availability of prevention or health center funding.  But with this new law arose many challenges for the community nurse and the public health. Many of  those new insured had inadequate health care and they require additional education and care from the nurses. There was also a call for screening/preventive services to be shifted to the community health care centers instead of the clinics or Hospitals. This is putting a strain on the community Health care workforce requiring Communities to hire additional nurses, but this is a hard task to do, because of the current national Nurses shortage. There are incentives in place to encourage current nurses to advance their education to Nurse Practitioners to help with the increased need for additional Health care providers in our communities.