Spiritual/Religious Needs of Adolescents with Cancer

Abstract

Adolescents, when faced with cancer and hospitalization, experience different needs that can have a profound impact on the adolescent and their family. Spirituality and religion are helpful in order to find meaning in the experience of cancer. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the spiritual/religious needs of adolescents with cancer in Iran. This study was an exploratory qualitative research. Adolescents with cancer, their families and nurses working in cancer unit formed the participants. The study environment was the cancer unit and the study population was adolescents with cancer in Kerman, Iran. Purposeful sampling and, semi-structured interviews with 14 adolescents with cancer and their families and six nurses were performed individually. To analyze the data, qualitative content analysis was used. From the data analysis four main themes emerged: the need for a relationship with God; the need for a relationship with the self; the need for a relationship with others; and the need for a relationship with the environment and nature. The results of this study provided a new vision in meeting the spiritual/religious needs of adolescents with cancer. According our result, adolescents with cancer, in addition to their developmental stage, need to face the other needs that can come along with the needs of this age period. Regarding these needs, it is helpful to find purpose and meaning in the experience of suffering and pain, and it can prevent spiritual distress.

Inducing a sense of worthiness in patients: the basis of patient-centered palliative care for cancer patients in Iran

“…This feeling of being supported was introduced as the sense of worthiness in the present study. As also reported in Ragsdale and Zeighamy’s study, providing a spiritual environment for patients is one way to show that their spirituality is valued and respected; and it is also a strategy to address patients’ spiritual needs by helping them connect with Their divine source of tranquility or their inner self [ 39 , 40 ]. Additionally, Zeighamy and Docherty believe that this is a spiritual need and it helps to develop more respect for patients’ spiritual beliefs, which allows care-providers try to help patients overcome their spiritual concerns, and it also helps patients to develop relations with others [ 40 , 41 ].…”

Synthèse des stratégies d’autogestion employées par de jeunes adultes ayant reçu une greffe de cellules hématopoïétiques : revue narrative

“…Par ailleurs, les résultats de cette revue narrative sont cohérents avec ceux de Taylor et al (2015) qui indiquent que les jeunes adultes peuvent, lorsque confrontés à certaines expériences négatives comme un cancer, faire appel à leurs croyances spirituelles. D'ailleurs, selon Zeighamy et Sadeghi (2016), les jeunes adultes atteints d'un cancer pourraient s'appuyer sur leur spiritualité afin de se détendre, de se sentir mieux et d'accroître leur espoir. Ces propos sont cohérents avec nos résultats qui mettent en lumière que les SA liées aux croyances spirituelles peuvent aider les jeunes adultes ayant reçu une GCH à mieux contrôler certains symptômes psychologiques (ex.…”

Item Response Theory Analysis of the Hospitalized Patients Spiritual Needs Questionnaire

“…The low discrimination (slope) items of HPSNQ scale were those of the "peaceful environment" dimension. We should consider that these items assess the main spiritual issues associated with the relationship to the environment and nature, theoretically or empirically identi ed as important aspects of spiritual needs of patients [29][30][31][32]. Therefore, the nature of response to these items might be extreme.…”