A Training Program for Existential and Spiritual Care, Arndt Büssing

A Training Program for Existential and Spiritual Care | Prof. Arndt Büssing | ECRSH 2026 How can healthcare professionals become better equipped to recognize and respond to existential and spiritual suffering in clinical practice? In this keynote lecture at ECRSH 2026, Prof. Arndt Büssing presents the rationale, research, and practical implementation of a structured training program for Existential and Spiritual Care. Building on decades of research into spiritual needs, spiritual distress, and whole-person healthcare, he argues that while modern medicine excels at diagnosing and treating disease, healthcare professionals are often less prepared to address the existential disruption and suffering that frequently accompany serious illness. Key topics include: • Existential and spiritual suffering in healthcare • Why spiritual needs often remain invisible and unmet • The importance of spiritual needs assessment • The Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) • Spiritual distress screening tools • Cultural differences in spiritual needs • Spiritual care beyond palliative care • Spiritual needs in chronic illness, disability, and cancer care • Interprofessional collaboration in spiritual care • The SPaCE curriculum (Spiritual and Existential Care Interprofessional) • Team-based spiritual care training • Organisational culture and compassionate healthcare Drawing on research conducted across different patient populations and countries, Prof. Büssing demonstrates that spiritual needs are not limited to religious concerns. They frequently involve needs for inner peace, meaning, connectedness, generativity, belonging, reconciliation, and support in coping with illness-related uncertainty. These needs often emerge long before end-of-life care and can be present from the moment of diagnosis. A central message of the lecture is that what is not assessed often remains invisible. Prof. Büssing therefore advocates the use of structured assessment tools to identify spiritual needs and spiritual distress, not primarily as measurement instruments but as opportunities to open conversations about issues that patients may otherwise never raise. The lecture presents extensive findings from studies involving patients with chronic illnesses, cancer, palliative care patients, family caregivers, and healthcare professionals. These studies consistently show that patients often welcome conversations about existential and spiritual concerns, while healthcare professionals frequently report barriers such as lack of time, insufficient training, uncertainty about professional roles, and discomfort with the subject matter. Prof. Büssing introduces the SPaCE (Spiritual and Existential Care Interprofessional) curriculum, a structured 40-hour training program developed to strengthen spiritual care competencies among healthcare professionals. The program combines theoretical foundations, self-reflection, communication skills, assessment methods, and interprofessional collaboration strategies. Research evaluating the curriculum demonstrated significant improvements in spiritual care competence, self-awareness, confidence, documentation practices, and responsiveness to patients’ spiritual needs. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of team culture. The findings suggest that sustainable spiritual care depends not only on individual competence but also on supportive teams, organizational structures, and workplace cultures that encourage reflection, communication, and compassionate care. The lecture further explores the spiritual needs of family caregivers, the relationship between spiritual distress and emotional burden, and the importance of offering existential support not only to patients but also to those who accompany them through illness and dying. Ultimately, Prof. Büssing argues that spiritual care is a core component of truly person-centered healthcare. It is not about providing answers to every existential question but about being present, listening attentively, recognizing suffering, and responding to patients as whole human beings rather than as diagnoses. This presentation is particularly relevant for physicians, nurses, psychologists, chaplains, social workers, educators, healthcare leaders, palliative care teams, and all professionals interested in compassionate, holistic, and person-centered healthcare. 📍 Recorded at: European Conference on Religion, Spirituality and Health (ECRSH) 2026, Basel, Switzerland 🎓 Speaker: Prof. Arndt Büssing 🏥 Conference Theme: Heart, Brain, and Spirit – A Holistic Approach to Modern Healthcare Learn more about ECRSH: 👉 https://www.ecrsh.eu #ECRSH2026 #ArndtBüssing #SpiritualCare #ExistentialCare #SpiritualityAndHealth #PersonCentredCare #SpiritualNeeds #HealthcareEducation #PalliativeCare #CompassionateCare #WholePersonHealth #ReligionAndHealth #HealthcareResearch #SPaCE #HeartBrainSpirit