Prevalence and Associated Factors of Spiritual Needs Among Patients With Cancer and Family Caregivers

Elizabeth Johnston Taylor

ONF 2006, 33(4), 729-735. DOI: 10.1188/06.ONF.729-735

Purpose/Objectives: To measure the prevalence of spiritual needs and identify factors associated with spiritual needs among patients with cancer and family caregivers.

Design: Descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative.

Setting: Inpatients and outpatients at a university medical center in the southwestern United States.

Sample: 156 patients with cancer and 68 family caregivers who were primarily white and Christian and mostly perceived their cancer as not life threatening.

Methods: Self-report questionnaires, including the Spiritual Interests Related to Illness Tool and Information About You. Statistical analysis involved analyses of variance, correlations, and factor analysis.

Main Research Variables: Spiritual needs and desire for nursing help with spiritual needs.

Findings: The most important spiritual needs included being positive, loving others, finding meaning, and relating to God. The least important were needing to ask "why" questions and preparing for dying. Desire for nursing assistance with spiritual needs was moderate and varied. Variables correlated with spiritual needs and desire for nurse help included religiosity, being an inpatient, and perceiving the cancer as incurable. Desire for nurse help and importance of spiritual needs were directly correlated.

Conclusions: Distressing spiritual needs were reported least frequently. Certain factors appear to be associated with how much spiritual need is perceived and how much nurse help with those needs is wanted.

Implications for Nursing: Patients with cancer and family caregivers have similar spiritual needs that may require care. Spiritual assessment and therapeutics can target specific types of spiritual needs. A nurse's help with spiritual needs, however, is not always wanted.

Jump to a section

    References

    Bartel, M. (2004). What is spiritual? What is spiritual suffering? Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling, 58(3), 187-201.

    Carpenter, J.S., Brockopp, D.Y., & Andrykowski, M.A. (1999). Self-transformation as a factor in the self-esteem and well-being of breast cancer survivors. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29, 1402-1411.

    Clark, P.A., Drain, M., & Malone, M.P. (2003). Addressing patients' emotional and spiritual needs. Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Safety, 29, 659-670.

    Clinebell, H.J., Jr. (1966). Basic types of pastoral counseling. Nashville, TN: Abington.

    Feher, S., & Maly, R.C. (1999). Coping with breast cancer in later life: The role of religious faith. Psycho-Oncology, 8, 408-416.

    Ferrell, B.R., Smith, S.L., Juarez, G., & Melancon, C. (2003). Meaning of illness and spirituality in ovarian cancer survivors. Oncology Nursing Forum, 30, 249-257.

    Halstead, M.T., & Hull, M. (2001). Struggling with paradoxes: The process of spiritual development in women with cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 28, 1534-1544.

    Harrington, V., Lackey, N.R., & Gates, M.F. (1996). Needs of caregivers of clinic and hospice cancer patients. Cancer Nursing, 19, 118-125.

    Hermann, C.P. (2001). Spiritual needs of dying patients: A qualitative study. Oncology Nursing Forum, 28, 67-72.

    Highfield, M.F. (1992). Spiritual health of oncology patients. Nurse and patient perspectives. Cancer Nursing, 15, 1-8.

    International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement. (1990). Assumptions and principles of spiritual care. Death Studies, 14(1), 75-81.

    Koenig, H., & Pritchett, J. (1998). Religion and psychotherapy. In H. Koenig (Ed.), Handbook of religion and mental health (pp. 323-336). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Massey, K., Fitchett, G., & Roberts, P.A. (2004). Assessment and diagnosis in spiritual care. In K.L. Mauk & N.K. Schmidt (Eds.), Spiritual care in nursing practice (pp. 209-242). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.

    McEwen, M. (2005). Spiritual nursing care: State of the art. Holistic Nursing Practice, 19, 161-168.

    Moadel, A., Morgan, C., Fatone, A., Grennan, J., Carter, J., Laruffa, G., et al. (1999). Seeking meaning and hope: Self-reported spiritual and existential needs among an ethnically-diverse cancer patient population. Psycho-Oncology, 8, 378-385.

    Murray, S.A., Kendall, M., Boyd, K., Worth, A., & Benton, T.F. (2004). Exploring the spiritual needs of people dying of lung cancer or heart failure: A prospective qualitative interview study of patients and their carers. Palliative Medicine, 18, 39-45.

    Nolan, P., & Crawford, P. (1997). Towards a rhetoric of spirituality in mental health care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26, 289-294.

    Reed, P.G. (1991). Preferences for spiritually related nursing interventions among terminally ill and nonterminally ill hospitalized adults and well adults. Applied Nursing Research, 4, 122-128.

    Reed, P.G. (1992). An emerging paradigm for the investigation of spirituality in nursing. Research in Nursing and Health, 15, 349-357.

    Sodestrom, K.E., & Martinson, I.M. (1987). Patients' spiritual coping strategies: A study of nurse and patient perspectives. Oncology Nursing Forum, 14(2), 41-46.

    Soothill, K., Morris, S.M., Harman, J.C., Thomas, C., Francis, B., & McIllmurray, M.B. (2002). Cancer and faith. Having faith—Does it make a difference among patients and their informal carers? Scandinavian Journal of Caring Science, 16, 256-263.

    Strang, S., & Strang, P. (2001). Spiritual thoughts, coping and ‘sense of coherence’ in brain tumour patients and their spouses. Palliative Medicine, 15, 127-134.

    Taylor, E.J. (2000). Transformation of tragedy among women surviving breast cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 27, 781-788.

    Taylor, E.J. (2002). Spiritual care: Nursing theory, research, and practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Taylor, E.J. (2003a). Nurses caring for the spirit: Patients with cancer and family caregiver expectations. Oncology Nursing Forum, 30, 585-590.

    Taylor, E.J. (2003b). Spiritual needs of patients with cancer and family caregivers. Cancer Nursing, 26, 260-266.

    Taylor, E.J. (2003c). Spiritual quality of life. In C.R. King & P.S. Hinds (Eds.), Quality of life: From nursing and patient perspectives (2nd ed., pp. 93-116). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

    Taylor, E.J., Amenta, M., & Highfield, M. (1995). Spiritual care practices of oncology nurses. Oncology Nursing Forum, 22, 31-39.

    Taylor, E.J., & Mamier, I. (2005). Spiritual care nursing: What cancer patients and family caregivers want. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 49, 260-267.