Patient Spirituality Assessment

When you see patients consider making a spiritual assessment. There are several ways to do this, but a simple, quick and direct method is FICA, now in fairly common useage. This mnemonic will be easy for American readers. To take a spiritual history, ask your patient four questions: F – What is your faith tradition? I – What is important to you? C – Do you have community that supports you? A – How do you want me to address this during your health care? You may find easy opportunities to link your patient with their faith community, but you will certainly discover what spiritual care they desire. For many it will be an important link to their physical healing.