Introduction:Diagnosis of cancer can cause huge spiritual crisis in a person and affect different aspects of life. At this stage, patients have certain spiritual needs.Aim:This study was conducted to explain spiritual needs of cancer patients in Iran.Materials and Methods:In this qualitative study, 18 cancer patients, referred to the Cancer Institute of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran were selected using purposive sampling method, and their spiritual needs emerged out of conventional content analysis of interviews conducted with them.Results:From 1850 initial codes, 4 themes (connection, peace, meaning and purpose, and transcendence) were identified that contained categories of social support, normal behavior, inner peace, seeking forgiveness, hope, acceptance of reality, seeking meaning, ending well, change of life meaning, strengthening spiritual belief, communication with God, and prayer.Conclusions:Spiritual needs of cancer patients should be recognized, realized, and considered in care of patients by the medical team. An all-out support of health system policy makers to meet patients’ spiritual needs is particularly important.

Background: The diagnosis of cancer can cause great spiritual crises in persons and affect various aspects of their lives. Objectives: This study was conducted to design a psychometric spiritual needs assessment scale of patients with cancer in Iran. Methods: This methodological research was conducted in 2 parts: qualitative and quantitative. Interviews were conducted with 18 patients with cancer who were referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran with the maximum diversity of the patients occurring in the qualitative stage for explaining the spiritual needs of patients. The purposive sampling method was applied to this study. The interviews were analysed with the content analysis method, and eventually classes related to patients' spiritual needs were conducted. Also, the terms of the scale were designed in this way. In the quantitative stage, content validity, formal validity, structure validity (exploratory factor analysis), and convergent validity were evaluated with internal consistency and retests of the scale. Results: The 4 themes, Connection, Search for Peace, Find Meaning and Purpose, and Achieve Transcendence were extracted from the codes obtained. The intended scale was, then, designed. The content validity index and validity ratio of tools of content validity were determined. Content validity was applied during the assessment of face validity assessment of written comments of experts. In addition, 10 patients were examined on the scale. An exploratory factor analysis indicated the 5 factors of the designed scale. Finally, a scale was obtained with 38 terms in 5 subscales and its scoring was determined in a 6-episode Likert. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was estimated 0.81; for the religious dimension, this was 0.88, for meaning and purpose 0.77, for peace 0.70, for connection 0.74, and for support and nationalism 0.67, respectively. The result of the retest was also estimated ICC = 0.89. Conclusions: The spiritual needs scale in patients with cancer can measure different aspects of spiritual needs and is reliable and valid. It is suggested that the spiritual needs assessment scale of patients with cancer be used in different populations of patients with cancer separated on the basis of sex, age, type of cancer, and stage of the cancer and the spiritual needs of these patients be determined. Also, the designed scale is validated in other places and with different cultural conditions.

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Background: Nurses are responsible for maintaining and improving the health and quality of life of patients. Therefore, it is important to assess the quality of life of nurses in order to improve it. Quality of life is affected by many variables and among them burnout, perceived social support and psychological hardiness are the leading ones. This study aimed at predicting the quality of life of nurses based on job burnout, perceived social support and psychological hardiness. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on nurses working in governmental hospitals in Tehran , 2015. Four-hundred nurses were selected by multistage cluster sampling. The instruments were burnout, perceived social support, psychological hardiness and quality of life questionnaires. The data was analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple regression model simultaneously. Results:The results showed that the burnout and quality of life of the nurses had a significant and negative relationship (r=-0.39) and the perceived social support (r =0.61) and psychological hardiness (r =0.45) had a positive and significant correlation with quality of life of nurses (P<0.01). In a predictive model of burnout, perceived social support and psychological hardiness could predict 59.3 percent of the changes in quality of life (R2=0.593). Conclusion: According to the results, it is suggested that nursing executives, counselors, therapists and policy makers pay attention to the signs and the effects of these variables , and conduct some appropriate programs for improving the quality of life of nurses.

Background: Cancer is considered one of the most important health issues in Iran. Regarding that Iranians have a positive attitude towards complementary medicine; the demand for this type of treatments is increasing. However, those undergoing this treatment often have limited awareness on it. Objectives: This study aims at determining the perspective of cancer patients on using complementary medicine. Methods: In this descriptive study, 176 cancer patients from all over the country were selected by purposeful sampling, according to the inclusion criteria and, then, completed demographic characteristics questionnaire and the Questionnaire on Integrating Complementary Medicine in Oncology Treatment. The data were analyzed, using SPSS software version 20. Results: More than half of the patients used complementary medicine and according to their viewpoints, using herbal medicine was considered their first priority. At the same time, 46% of the research samples consulted with care providers on how to use complementary medicine for cancer treatment. The most frequent referrals to specialists were referrals to complementary medicine experts. The researchers expected complementary medicine to improve their symptoms of anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Conclusions: The use of complementary medicine as a complementary approach in cancer patients can have an impact on the improvement of symptoms, which ultimately enhances the quality of life in patients. Due to the concerns about applying these approaches, it is necessary to train care providers in order to consider the perspective of cancer patients in this regard and to obtain their past medical history.