The Assessment of Spiritual Needs of Patients with Cancer Referred to Alinasab and Shahid Ghazi Tabatabaei Hospitals of Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Finding out the meaning and purpose of life in patients with cancer leads to incidence of spiritual crisis and consequently ,increase of their spiritual needs. In such cases, it is necessary for health care personnel , especially nurses to identify the patient's spiritual needs and respond to them. The objective of present study is to determine spiritual needs of cancer patients hospitalized in Ali Nasab and Ghazi Tabatabaee hospitals of Tabriz. Materials and Method: This research is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was conducted with the aim of determining spiritual needs of patients with cancer. In this study, 200 persons of cancer patients were selected by available sampling method and considering the inclusion criteria included definitive diagnosis of cancer, awareness of diagnosis, ability of making communication, elapsing at least 2 months from diagnosis of disease and age above 18 years. The tools of data gathering were demographic characteristics form and " the scale of evaluating the spiritual needs of patients with cancer". Completion of the questionnaires was carrying out by interview with patients in bedside and the information related to disease was obtained from patient's document. Collected data were entered into the computer after coding and was analyzed using spss software version 18 and also, descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings: The maximum average in dimensions of patient's spiritual needs was related to dimension of need for seeking calm ( 37.32 +_ 8.215 ), and at the next stage was related to dimension of religious needs(31.62+_ 6.427). The minimum average was related to dimension of need for support and having independence. (21.23+_ 4.348). Also, the findings showed that, among the personal- social qualitative characteristics of patients , the income status (p=0.012) had significant statistical relationship with spiritual needs and among the personal- social quantitative characteristics of patients , duration of the disease diagnosis (p=0.009) and the number of hospitalization (p=0.018) had significant statistical relationship with spiritual needs. Conclusion: Need for seeking calm and religious needs were the maximum dimensions of cancer patient's spiritual needs. Moreover, high rate of income and increase of duration of disease and fewerrecords of hospitalizations, lead to increased spiritual needs. Based on these needs, it can be possible to do proper planning for meeting the spiritual needs of patients.