Spirituality and end-of-life care.

As dying patients adjust to the irreversible nature of their illness, their needs and focus of care changes. Spiritual issues may become a central concern for them, and addressing these issues can be key to relieving suffering. Physicians, unfortunately, have little training in this area and are often uncomfortable discussing spirituality. In this article, we address the role of spirituality in end-of-life care, and discuss a format for spiritual assessment. We hope this will encourage more comprehensive patient-centered, end-of-life care.