Objective: Cancer patients face many health challenges, including spiritual issues. Therefore, an awareness of health-care providers’ perspective on spiritual care provision is important. This study aimed to determine health-care providers’ perception of spiritual care and to examine the individual barriers to its implementation in cancer patients. Methods: The present descriptive study included 136 physicians and nurses. The Spiritual Care Survey was used as a research tool. Data were analyzed through descriptive statistics using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 20.0. Results: In this study, 70.6% of the participants considered spiritual care to be influential in the patients’ quality of life. However, 64.7% had received no spiritual care training, while 82.4% indicated a willingness to attend these courses. Regarding the obstacles to providing spiritual care, the highest and lowest scores, respectively, belonged to the lack of time and the person's reluctance to talk about spiritual issues. Conclusions: Spiritual care has not yet found its proper place in the care setting of Iran, and health-care team members do not have sufficient training to provide this kind of care despite their belief in its positive impact on patients’ quality of life.

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The sibling cancer needs instrument (SCNI) is the first developed specifically for assessing psychosocial unmet needs of adolescents having a sibling with cancer. The aim of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of its Persian version. Methods: For this methodological study, the SCNI was translated into Persian using back-translation and revised according to the comments of the developer of the instrument. Then face validity, content validity, construct validity, internal consistency and the stability of the Persian version of the instrument were measure, by examining a population of 180 adolescents having a sibling with cancer in six hospitals in Tehran, Iran. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 16 and EQS version 6.1. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis approved the construct validity of the instrument and its seven domains. Cronbach's alpha was measured as 0.97 for the total instrument and 0.80-0.92 for its seven domains. In order to evaluate ttest-retest reliability, the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was also calculated (0.94). Conclusions: The Persian version of SCNI has acceptable psychometric properties. It can be used for measuring the unmet psychosocial needs in adolescents who have a sibling with cancer in the Persian-speaking population.

BackgroundThe diagnosis of cancer in a child is a stressful experience for the entire family, particularly for adolescent or young adult siblings and their psychosocial needs (PSNs) may remain unfulfilled. The aim of the study was to assess the unfulfilled PSNs of the adolescent siblings of patients with cancer in Iran and examine the relationships between demographic and medical variables and PSNs.MethodsThis descriptive analytical study was conducted in 2019 in seven teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Participants were 188 adolescent siblings of patients with cancer. Sampling was performed consecutively. Data were collected using a demographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire and the Sibling Cancer Needs Instrument (SCNI). To investigate the relationship between demographic variables and the mean score of PSNs subscales, first, the correlation was determined, and afterward, the significant variables were analyzed using multiple linear regression.ResultsIn total, 180 adolescent siblings completed the study. Their mean age was 15.66 ± 2.55 years and the mean summary score of their PSNs was 121.15 ± 32.73. Around 80.60% of adolescents indicated at least one unmet need related to each question. The most common unfulfilled needs of participants were related to the information about sibling’s cancer dimension (INFO) (mean: 2.94 ± 0.79) and the less common unfulfilled needs were related to the practical assistance dimension (UFAM) (mean: 2.38 ± 0.93). Based on the regression coefficients, a significant relationship was observed between the mean summary score of PSNs with the duration of cancer (β = –2.199, p = 0.006) and mother’s age (β = –2.805, p = 0.029).ConclusionThe adolescent siblings of patients with cancer have different unfulfilled PSNs, particularly respecting information about their siblings’ cancer and support for emotional coping. Family members and healthcare providers should provide these adolescents with strong informational support and fulfill their needs in order to promote their health and their emotional coping.