Background: In Thailand, most terminally ill patients die in hospital and are looked after by health professionals. Terminally ill patients tend to receive physical care only, while in the main, spiritual care is neglected. This study aimed to explore spirituality in palliative care health professionals and spiritual leaders in the Thai Buddhist context. Method: In this qualitative case study, seven experienced palliative caregivers took part in in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis and a trustworthiness process were used to analyse the data. Findings: Three themes emerged: (1) the ability for self-awareness and faith; (2) acceptance and compassion for others; and (3) spiritual behaviour while nursing. Conclusion: The results revealed the meaning of spirituality and the necessary characteristics for spirituality in palliative care for the participants, which could serve as a basis for further development.

Background: Nursing students form part of the healthcare team who care for patients who are living with a terminal illness and facing physical and spiritual suffering. However, there is a lack of suitable indicators to measure a nurse's spirituality when they are providing palliative care. Aim: To develop a way of measuring the spirituality of nurses who provide palliative care. Method: The participants consisted of 312 third-and fourth-year nursing students of two nursing colleges from southern and central Thailand. Finding: The 12-item Spirituality in Palliative Care Scale had the reliability of .804. The measurement model was consistent with the empirical data and had unidimensional quality (X2=50.94, df=45, p-value=0.25, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.044, Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (SRMR)=0.044, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI)=0.95, Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)=0.97, goodness of fit (GFI)=0.97). The items' factor loadings were in between .48 and .84. Conclusion: The spirituality in palliative care scale can measure nursing students' spirituality in palliative care and nursing educators can use the measurement to support nursing students to develop greater awareness of spirituality in palliative care.

Currently, worldwide economic, social, and health conditions change rapidly. Also, there is a problem related to important health system in Thailand. There is continuing growth in the number of older adults, patients with chronic diseases, and cancer patients. Based on the National Cancer Institute of Thailand, 130,000 new cancer cases are found yearly. 39.96% of these cases were people aged 60 and over. In addition, cancer was the number one cause of death: there were 107.

Purpose Thai terminal ill cancer patients have spiritual distress and need spiritual care. They are in need of palliative care in the long term to alleviate suffering, achieve good spirituality, and to be ready to face with terminal ill conditions. This study aimed to investigate spiritual needs and compare differences in spiritual needs. Methods A quantitative design was used for data collection and data analysis. The participants were Thai terminal ill cancer patients from Thai seven hospitals in northern, northeast, central, and southern regions; 322 participants were purposively selected. Instruments used was a spiritual needs scale. The instrument’s validity was validated by 17 experts, a Delphi technique was performed, the Cronbach’s alpha of 0.89 was found. Statistical analysis was F-test for one-way analysis of variance. Results The overall spiritual needs of terminal ill cancer patients were at the moderate level. The highest mean was found in the ‘prepare for death’ dimension, followed by ‘have meaning, values, and life purposes’ and ‘have opportunity to pursue most important things in life’ dimensions consecutively and had different spiritual needs among status, number of family members, living with family, and spiritual anchor at the statistical significance level of .05. Conclusion: The study results provide insight into spiritual needs of terminal ill cancer patients. That assists in improving the provision of holistic care to let the patients be happy at end-of-life phase.