An investigation of the presence of religion and spirituality in social work education focusing on social work educators’ familiarity with spiritual assessment tools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether social work educators are conversant with spiritual assessment tools (FICA, HOPE, FAITH, SPIRIT, and CSI-MEMO), whether these tools are taught as part of the social work curriculum, and whether religious and spiritual courses are offered online and face-to-face in religious and non-religious social work programs. This is a mixed-methods study that utilized an online survey instrument to collect the data. The study found most participants are not familiar with spiritual assessment tools. It found that most accredited social work programs have included spiritual-relevant practice in courses, and a majority of them offered more variations of courses on spirituality. The results revealed a positive relationship between spiritual assessment tools and religious universities. A statistically significant association was found between social work courses in spirituality and course format. Further, the relationship between religious accredited social work programs and spiritual courses as elective, required courses, or part of course content was found to be not statistically significant.