Spiritual Awareness Course

A Course in Spiritual Awareness for Healthcare Professionals in the Hospice

www.julianmaddock.org.uk

This is a course of four, 90-minute sessions exploring the place and rôle of spirituality in a hospice.

Aims

To explore what is meant by spirituality
To explore and recognise in what ways spirituality is part of all our lives
To explore the spirituality of a hospice
To explore the spiritual needs of patients
To look at self-care and nurture
To share some spiritual ‘technologies'

Objective

The object of the course is to raise awareness of the relevance and application of spirituality in the lives of staff and the care of patients.

Outline

What is Spirituality?
Working in a Hospice
Spirituality of Patients
Self-care

The four sessions are inter-related and each builds upon what has gone before. Ideally all should be attended. The basic premise is that spirituality is about what we most value in life and how we live according to what we value. Thus everyone has spirituality, though this may me more or less explicit. It is my assertion that it is only to the extent that we are aware of the spirituality of our own lives that can we be sensitive to the spiritual needs of others. Thus, the course starts with us. Each session is likely to include:

a little time in a spiritual practice (e.g. awareness of sensations/feelings/thoughts, awareness of sounds, silence, review of the day),
some input,
some led reflection on the particular theme,
sharing ideas with each other,
an element of reflection on healthcare practice,
a pulling together at the end.

Who is it for?

The course is for anyone who works in a hospice. It has been given successfully to students, doctors, nurses, admin staff, managers and volunteers. The course will be more experiential and interactive than didactic. It is not intended to push a religious line or ‘convert' people. It encourages participants to reflect upon their own lives and to share their thoughts with each other. This exploration can touch participant's feelings, which can be both disturbing and enlivening. It is held in safe and confidential atmosphere.

Numbers

An ideal group size would be 8-16 people.

Timing

Healthcare professionals are busy people. There is flexibility in the giving of the course. As a suggestion, the course could be run in one of three ways:

all four 90-minute sessions in one day with breaks for tea/coffee and lunch
as two half-days, which could be, say, one-week apart
as four sessions at, say, one-week intervals.