Spirituality and Coping at the End of Life

Abstract

v Spiritual issues surface as people face death.Spiritual care is the core of care for the dying. Nurses are mandated to provide spiritual care, yet little is known about the impact of spirituality on the ability to cope at the end of life. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine relationships between spirituality and coping at end of life. Adults (n = 60) enrolled in hospice between ages 30 and 90 completed the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-being Scale, the Serenity Scale, and the Cognitive Coping Scale as measures of coping. Overall physical health, the importance of religion or God, level of comfort, and level of peacefulness were measured on analogue scales of 1 to 10. Significant correlations (P G .01) were found between spirituality and importance of religion (r = .573), serenity (r = .556), peacefulness (r = .540), comfort (r = .399), and cognitive coping (r = .333). Significant correlations with the meaning/ peace subscale were peacefulness (r = .534), serenity (r = .462), and comfort (r = .359). The faith/religion subscale correlations were importance of religion (r = .682), peacefulness (r = .423), cognitive coping (r = .410), serenity (r = .408), and comfort (r = .353). Linear regression indicated that spirituality is a predictor of peacefulness (r 2 = .279) at end of life. Seventy-three percent of patients reported that illness had strengthened their spiritual lives and increased religious practices, yet most reported low levels of comfort and peace. Implications for practice are that interventions must focus on broader spiritual issues by finding ways to achieve peacefulness and comfort and assist in finding meaning as death approaches.coping end of life peacefulness religion serenity spirituality v BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE B eing spiritual is part of being human because it forms the root of one`s identity and gives life meaning. 1 Spirituality means different things to different people. For the purposes of this investigation, spirituality is defined as a unique experience that is a person`s sense of peace and purpose or expression of a greater meaning and context. Spirituality is part of one`s caring for self,

A Systematic Review of Associations between Spiritual Well-Being and Quality of Life at the Scale and Factor Levels in Studies among Patients with Cancer

“…Among the 16 studies that examined the Meaning/Peace as one factor and its association with QOL, a positive association was evident in all except for one study. 41 This positive association was consistent for overall QOL (ranges from 0.49 to 0.70) and for physical (ranges from 0.25 to 0.28) and mental health (ranges from 0.55 to 0.73). 10,20,24,26 The correlation between Meaning/ Peace and mental health was found to be stronger than physical health in three studies, 11,29,45 although not for 288 BAI AND LAZENBY 2.…”

“…40 QOL outcomes were reported as overall QOL (total score or one-item global measure), summated scores of physical health (physical component summary [PCS]) or mental health (mental component summary [MCS]), or were broken down to domains of physical, social, emotional, and functional wellbeing. Four studies targeted the mental 27,35 or physical dimensions of QOL 17,41 without assessing overall QOL.…”

Spiritual Well-Being as a Component of Health-Related Quality of Life: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy—Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp)

“…One study examining the relationship between spiritual well-being and coping at endof-life explored the role of spiritual well-being in decision-making for patients in a hospice setting [37]. Sixty elder adults (mean age of 63) enrolled in hospice care completed the FACIT-Sp as well as the Serenity Scale and the Cognitive Coping Scale.…”

Incorporating Spirituality Into Home Care at the End of Life

“…Nearly 70% are church members, and more than 40% have attended church, synagogue, or temple within the past 7 days (Koenig, 2002). In a study by Kruse et al (2007), highly significant positive correlations were found between spiritual well-being, peacefulness, comfort, and serenity for participants who were at the end of life. In this study, 73% of the participants reported that illness had strengthened their spiritual life and increased their religious practices.…”

“…In this study, 73% of the participants reported that illness had strengthened their spiritual life and increased their religious practices. These religious practices included praying, reading the Bible, attending church or mass, having visits from the chaplain, and receiving support from the church community (Kruse et al, 2007).…”