Assessing the Spiritual Needs and Practices of Oncology Patients in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the oncology patients' spiritual needs and activities. Besides, the study was to provide clinical evaluation of the feasibility and usefulness of the Patients Spiritual Needs Assessment Scale. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed by using a demographic and spiritual practices questionnaire, the Turkish version of the Patients Spiritual Needs Assessment Scale. The results of our study demonstrated that the most common spiritual needs of patients with cancer were "to address issues before death and dying" (100%), "feel a sense of peace and contentment" (94.8%), and "for companionship" (93.5%). Spiritually assessing a patient with cancer requires knowledge of how spiritual needs may manifest and how to talk with a client about his or her spiritual needs. These findings can help nurses to begin this process of providing spiritual care for patients with cancer.

Spırıtual needs and practıces among famıly caregıvers of patıents wıth cancer

“…The response categories were "never," "rarely," "fairly often," and "very often." The Turkish version of the SNAS were tested by Dedeli et al 9 Cronbach' alpha for the Turkish version of the SNAS was 0.89.The scale are well-documented, and norm values for a Turkish population are available. (9) In the present study, alpha coefficient was found 0.87 for the SNAS.…”

“…Family members would stay by the bedside reciting the Holy Quran (Koran) hoping to imbue peace and serenity into the heart of the loved one. (9,13,15) Spirituality is a distinctive, potentially creative and universal dimension, rising both within the inner subjective awareness of individuals and within communities. Several studies demonstrated that many individuals rely on their spirituality and faith when coping with stres in most cultures.…”

“…Although, many studies conducted on investigating positive effects of religion and spirituality on various aspects of health in patients with chronic diseases, few studies conducted on spiritual practices and almost no studies are carried out spiritual needs on family caregivers of patients with cancer. (9,15) We asked a question that do you think about your health care specialists to support your spiritual practices? 70.8% of the participants responded "yes" to that question.…”

“…Having cancer could makes the patients negative effects on their beliefs which add meaning and worth to their lives leading to the development of loneliness. (9) Spiritual needs should be met together with all the physical and psychological necessities in patients with cancer, because spiritual care is a part of the holistic care. However, nurses frequently disregard the spiritual dimension of the family caregivers and become inapt to integrate the spiritual dimension to cancer care.…”

“…Numerous studies have demonstrated that spirituality and spiritual practices significant effect on physical and psycho-social well-being, quality of life and coping with illness among cancer patients. (2,(7)(8)(9) Moreover, there are a few studies have investigated on spiritual needs and spiritual practices among family caregivers of patients with cancer. (4,6,10) As far as we know, there are no studies in Turkish family caregivers of patients with cancer on spiritual needs and spiritual practices.…”