Measuring the impacts of spirituality and self-care on quality of life outcomes
Measuring the impacts of spirituality and self-care on quality of life outcomes
White’s Theory of Spirituality and Spiritual Self-Care (WTSSSC) proposes that spiritual self-care practices lead to better health and productivity. Research of the theory has shown that spirituality can impact a person’s capacity to manage chronic illness, heal from serious disease and enjoy general well-being through spiritual practices. Such practices, when combined with clinical treatment, have been shown to improve outcomes and promote healing.
WTSSSC is behind the study of this phenomenon of human development and experience. It includes the Spiritual Self-Care Practice Scale, developed by Dr. Mary White, to measure and quantify lifestyle, physical, mental and spiritual markers which indicate an impact on outcomes of treatment for illness. The assessment scale is made available through this website at no cost and is intended for practitioners and professionals who seek to conduct research and test the theory in clinical and life situations.
The Spiritual Self Practices Assessment Scale by Dr. Mary L. White is a tool designed to measure how a patient’s overall mental and physical practices related to spirituality can affect well being and in turn, optimize one’s quality of life. It is a simple 36 question assessment scale with 4 subsets:
While the scale is free to use, our team is intending to collect and analyze results for further research. Package includes printable pdf, full instructions and additional information regarding scale development.
The Spiritual Self-Care Practices Assessment Scale was developed by Dr. Mary L. White, a nurse practitioner in family medicine. Dr. White has worked with chronically ill patients of all races and ethnicities. When providing care to these patients, she found some patients were able to attain better outcomes than others. Through interviews with many patients, she determined that patients who used spiritual practices appeared to have more positive outcomes and were able to maintain their lifestyles. From the outcomes of these interviews, she developed the Spiritual Self-care Practices theory. As a scale to measure these practices was not available, Dr. White developed the Spiritual Self-care Practices scale.
White’s Spiritual Self Care Practices Scale was developed to identify spiritual self-care practices and spiritual experiences that could contribute to the overall quality life for individuals with chronic healthcare issues.
“Spirituality is a set of beliefs a person holds which relate to their subjective sense of existential connectedness, including beliefs that reflect relationships with others, acknowledge a higher power, recognize an individual’s place in the world, and lead to spiritual practices. Spiritual self-care is the set of spiritually-based practices in which people engage to promote continued personal development and well-being in health and illness.”
– Dr. Mary L. White
