Spirituality Toolkit

After a three year project working with over 20 palliative care teams from across the US, we developed a Spirituality Toolkit for palliative care teams interested in going deeper in their practice of providing whole-person care. 

According to Parker Palmer in his book A Hidden Wholeness, "In this culture, we know how to create spaces that invite the intellect to show up, to argue its case, to make its point. We know how to create spaces that invite the emotions to show up, to express anger or joy. We know how to create spaces that invite the will to show up, to consolidate effort and energy round a common task. And we surely know how to create spaces that invite the ego to show up, preening itself and claiming its turf! But we seem to know very little about creating spaces that invite the soul to show up, this core of ourselves, our selfhood."

The Spirituality Toolkit includes the 10-Stages of the Goals of Care Conversation Guide. This guide designed to create spaces for the "soul to show up" and offers a template for deepening goals of care conversations through the use of open-ended questions and intentional presence to patients and their loved ones. Palliative care professionals who have used the 10-Stages consistently report a greater sense of the value and meaning of their work.

Download the Goals of Care Conversation Guide

Download the 10-Stages template with detailed descriptions and suggested scripting along with team evaluation, after conference summary, and chart audit tools.  Feel free to print and share.

A pocket-sized summary of the 10-Stages is available for download to print and share.

Watch Dr. Woody English describe Stages 2 (the pre-meeting spiritual grounding) and 10 (post-meeting debrief) in this short video. 

Dr. Woody English and Denise Hess demonstrate the Stage 2 pre-meeting briefing in this short role play.

Dr. Woody English and Denise Hess demonstrate Stage 10, the post-meeting debriefing, in this short role play.