GPs´ Personal Spirituality, Their Attitude and Spiritual Competence: A Cross-Sectional Study in German General Practices

To understand if GPs’ spiritual competence, their personal spirituality and attitude towards enquiring about spirituality in practice interrelate, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 30 German GPs regarding issues of SC. We found correlations between GPs’ personal spirituality, their spiritual competence and their attitudes towards SC. The ability to perceive spiritual needs of patients was the competence most strongly related to GPs’ attitude towards SC. The competence with the strongest correlation to personal spirituality was Self-awareness and Proactive opening. No correlation was found between affiliation to a spiritual community and GPs’ attitude towards SC. The results show that GPs’ personal spirituality and spiritual competence are indeed related to addressing spirituality with their patients. To foster SC, training programmes should raise awareness for one’s personal spirituality and encourage one to reflect on spiritual competence.