Table 2 The Nine Principles

Foundational principles that influence the organization of spiritual care

1. Quality spiritual care incorporates the spiritual into every other aspect of hospice palliative care such that the spiritual is not merely a part or element of care, but rather a descriptor of the kind, nature and quality of all care.

2. More profoundly than in any other area of care, quality spiritual care is guided and directed by the dying person and the family.

3. Hospice palliative care is fundamentally a vocation, and the work is inherently spiritual.

Principles that enable a high‐quality approach to spiritual care by care providers

4. Quality spiritual care requires care providers to allow spiritual questions and issues to emerge.

5. Quality spiritual care entails the act of ‘witnessing.’

6. Quality spiritual care considers place as sacred.

Principles that enable the spiritual care practices of care providers

7. Quality spiritual care includes rituals and times dedicated to marking transitions and processing experiences.

8. Quality spiritual care involves creating and sustaining relationships beyond those typical between co‐workers.

9. Quality spiritual care emphasizes the role of volunteers, whose presence and work reinforces and ensures that hospice palliative care is grounded as vocational and spiritual.