Assessment of spiritual needs in cancer patients: A cross-sectional study

Addressing the spiritual needs of patients is an essential component of holistic care in nursing. Acknowledging the spiritual needs of cancer patients enhances the performance of clinical caregivers in providing quality services to such patients. Therefore, caregivers successfully fulfill or decrease the patients' needs and thus increase their adaptation to crises.

The present cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the spiritual needs of cancer patients. In this study, 96 cancer patients were selected from Ayatollah Khansari Hospital in Arak, Iran. The required data were collected through a demographic information form and the Persian version of the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire.

Participants' verbal consent to participate in the study was obtained, and they were assured of anonymity and confidentiality.

In the present study, the mean age of the participants was 47.82 ± 14.34 years. The frequency distribution of respondents by gender was 36 males (37.5%) and 60 females (62.5%). The mean scores of spiritual needs in the domains of religious needs, need for inner peace, existential needs, and need for giving/generativity were 12.03 ± 3.18, 7.26 ± 3.26, 4.61 ± 2.96, and 4.06 ± 2.32, respectively. The highest and lowest mean values were associated with religious needs and need for giving/generativity, respectively. Religious needs showed a significantly positive relationship with gender, occupation, and the type of treatment (P < 0.05). Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between the need for peace and level of education (P < 0.05).

The recognition of the spiritual needs of cancer patients is the first step in prioritizing and planning to provide spiritual care to these patients and supporting them in adapting to and coping with the disease. Therefore, nurses need to acquire the fundamental knowledge and skills required to identify these needs.