Spiritual care: diagnosing spiritual pain in patients.

Although spiritual pain has achieved comparable recognition to physical and emotional pain in the care of patients with terminal disease, it is less well recognised in those who are not terminally ill. This article describes the signs of spiritual pain in hospital patients and emphasises the crucial role of nurses in diagnosing and alleviating it.     

Spiritual perception, attitudes about spiritual care, and spiritual care practices among nurse practitioners

The purpose of the nonexperimental study was to examine the relationships among spiritual perception, attitudes about spiritual care, and spiritual care practices in nurse practitioners. Attitudes about providing spiritual care and spiritual care practices have been studied among nurse generalists, but little research has been conducted on nurses in advanced practice. All nurse practitioners registered by the state of Indiana were sent Reed's Spiritual Perspective Scale (SPS) and a modified version of the Nurses' Spiritual Care Perspectives Scale developed by Taylor, Highfield, and Amenta. Pearson correlation techniques were used to test for significant relationships. Statistically positive relationships were between perception of personal spirituality and 9 of the 12 spiritual care practices. Eight of the 13 items describing attitude toward providing spiritual care were statistically significant with the SPS. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Providing spiritual care to patients with cancer

Patients with cancer, oncology nurses, and chaplains agree that nurses should provide spiritual care, but organizational and professional barriers often exist. To overcome these barriers, many nurses need only to complement their professional skill sets of problem solving, critical thinking, caring, and communication with knowledge of some spiritual-care specifics. This article provides basic definitions of religion and spirituality and their relationship as well as suggested religiospiritual assessment strategies, standard spiritual diagnoses, a pragmatic intervention approach, and documentation recommendations.     

心灵关怀对癌症患者焦虑、抑郁情绪的影响

目的:探讨心灵关怀对癌症患者焦虑、抑郁情绪的影响.方法:将120例新入院癌症患者随机分为对照组和实验组各60例,对照组采用常规护理、健康教育;实验组采用在此基础上辅以心灵关怀;分别于入院时、出院前对两组采用焦虑自评量表(SAS)、抑郁自评量表(SDS)进行测评,并观察两组效果.结果:出院时两组SAS测评分别43.3%和75.0%,SDS测评分别48.3%和70.2%,实验组显著低于对照组(P＜0.01).结论:心灵关怀通过减轻癌症患者的心理压力、对疾病诊断、治疗产生的不确定感、疼痛和症状困扰等不适,有效减轻癌症患者焦虑、抑郁情绪.     

Identity and resistance: why spiritual care needs 'enemies'

Aims. This paper explores certain key critiques of spirituality‐in‐nursing as they have been offered by people outside of the discipline. It argues that nurses have not taken seriously enough the recent criticism of the nature and role of spirituality in nursing. Not to listen to the ‘enemies’ of spirituality‐in‐nursing is to risk stagnation and a drift into obscurity. Background. The area of spirituality has become a growing field of interest for nurses and has produced a burgeoning body of research literature. Yet, whilst much has been written about the positive aspects of spirituality, nurses have offered almost no critique of the ways in which spirituality and spiritual care are understood, despite the fact that there are clearly certain key issues that require robust critique and thoughtful reflection. Almost all of the major criticisms of spirituality‐in‐nursing have come from people outside of the discipline of nursing. The paper argues that nurses need to listen carefully to the criticisms of spirituality and spiritual care offered by the ‘enemies’ of spiritual care in nursing. When listened to constructively, they highlight issues that are vital for the development and forward movement of this important area of nursing practice. Methods. Literature review and critical reflection on current critiques of spirituality in nursing practice. Conclusions. The paper concludes that nurses need to begin to develop spirituality as a specific field of enquiry with its own bodies of knowledge, methodologies, assumptions and core disciplines. Relevance to clinical practice. In listening to and taking seriously its ‘enemies’, nursing has the opportunity to establish spirituality as an important, creative and vibrant aspect of nursing practice that has the capacity to grow and respond constructively to its ‘enemies’, in ways that make whole‐person‐care a real possibility.     

在肿瘤患者中实施临床心灵关怀的管理与实践

临床心灵关怀是指医护人员针对患者患病过程中出现的各种精神心理问题,提供心理和情感的支持和帮助。通过在肿瘤患者中实施临床心灵关怀,给患者提供心理支持和全方位护理服务,提高了其生活质量,同时可促进医患沟通,减少医患纠纷,对于提高护理服务质量及服务内涵具有重要的意义。     

Development of pamphlets for cancer patients in disaster situations based on the study of cancer patients' care needs

Aim: The aim of this study is to develop a care package to help cancer patients improve their self‐care abilities and better prepare for a disaster, so that they can continue treatment and perform symptom management strategies in disaster situations. Methods: In this study, the “Care Package for Cancer Patients in Times of Disaster”, which comprises four pamphlets, was developed through discussions among the eight members of the study group. The care package was produced by making additions and modifications, based on the findings obtained in the above two steps, to the patient education booklets developed in the area of oncology. Results: Of the areas that cancer patients find difficult in times of disaster, the following six were extracted: difficulty in continuing treatment, the possibility of running out of pain medicines and how to store pain medicines, the possibility of not being able to go to a regular hospital, the shortage of stoma‐care appliances and other products, the possibility of exposure to infections at a shelter, and the necessity of providing care for cancer patients and their families before and after death. By incorporating these pieces of information, we developed the four pamphlets. These pamphlets are posted on the website for public use. Conclusion: The newly developed pamphlets incorporate information on how to cope with specific situations in times of disaster, based on the findings obtained from the “Survey on Actual Conditions of Treatment and Nursing Care to Cancer Patients in Disaster Situations”.     

中老年癌痛患者灵性需求与睡眠质量状况及相互关系

目的 了解中老年癌痛患者灵性需求与睡眠质量的状况,并分析二者之间的相关性,为灵性护理干预提供依据.方法 选取2019年5—11月福建省某三级甲等医院收治的132例中老年癌痛患者为研究对象,采用一般资料调查表、中文版灵性需求评估量表(SNS)及匹兹堡睡眠质量指数量表(PSQI)进行调查,并对灵性需求与睡眠质量相关性进行分...     

The assessment of nursing care needs in cancer patients

In order to explore the status quo of the assessment of nursing care needs in newly admitted inpatients on oncology wards a survey in a German university hospital was carried out. Research questions included: Do the nurses collect data regarding nursing care needs of admitted cancer patients? When are the data collected? What data are collected? What is documented, when is it documented, and is the patient involved in the documentation? What, if any, factors on the part of nurses have an impact on the way in which these data are collected? Two methods were used to collect research data: nursing documents of hospitalised cancer patients were analysed (n = 68), followed by an interview with the nurses (n = 81). Beforehand, an instrument was developed and tested for both investigative methods. The main result was: the nurses' perception of the needs' assessment was incongruent with data in the patients' documentation files. The study showed that nurses consider their documentation of nursing care needs to be more comprehensive with regard to the time and content/areas of documentation than it actually is. With regard to the psychological, social, and spiritual care needs, for example, this means: in the nurses' own opinion, they had taken into account these needs far more strongly than they actually had. According to the analysis of the care documents, patients were involved in the documentation in 15% of the cases. According to the nurses, general communication skills, the use of assessment instruments, and the standardisation of the documentation need to be improved. The review of international literature confirms the deficiency recorded by this survey. The oncology patients' perspective should be included more strongly in the assessment of nursing care needs. In this way, individual nursing care needs are assumed to be understood more appropriately. Self-assessment instruments could be a suitable resource in this context. The instruments have to be introduced by education, and their validity, reliability, practical relevancy, and applicability need to be checked continuously.