Religiosity and Spirituality in Military Veteran Cancer Survivors: A Qualitative Perspective

Abstract

Religiosity/spirituality (R/S) is often involved in coping with cancer. Qualitative research effectively captures the individuality of R/S constructs. Fourteen military veteran cancer survivors participated in focus groups. R/S questions included "How have your religious/spiritual beliefs affected how you cope with your cancer" and "How have your religious/spiritual beliefs changed as a result of your experience with cancer?" Five primary themes emerged: impact of cancer on R/S, meaning-making, prayer, religious/spiritual role of others, and facing death. Consistency and individuality characterized the role of R/S in cancer survivorship across themes. Implications for future research are discussed.

Spiritual well‐being in long‐term colorectal cancer survivors with ostomies

“…Evidence on the relevant content of SpWB can inform assessments and interventions to improve and support SpWB among patients with serious illness . Despite this promise, however, studies using SpWB measures have done little to link SpWB with an understanding of how patients experience coherence versus disruption in their sense of personal meaning, which is best collected through qualitative techniques .…”

‘You never come back the same’: the challenge of spiritual care in a deployed military nursing context

“…A small portion of the literature does explore spirituality within military veteran (Trevino et al . , Mahboobi et al . ) and military family (Hamlin‐Glover , Chambers ) populations although these papers do not directly address the deployed military nursing setting.…”

“…Within the military context, however, research surrounding the spiritual domain remains largely restricted to religiousbased chaplaincy services (Wester 2009) and psychology services (Pargament & Sweeney 2011). A small portion of the literature does explore spirituality within military veteran (Trevino et al 2011, Mahboobi et al 2012) and military family (Hamlin-Glover 2009, Chambers 2013 populations although these papers do not directly address the deployed military nursing setting.…”

Cancer survivor rehabilitation and recovery: Protocol for the Veterans Cancer Rehabilitation Study (Vet-CaRes)

“…Therefore we expanded our exploration of this realm by developing a series of questions based on the meaning making [35] and religion and spirituality in medical illness literatures [36-42]. We utilized a series of open-ended questions designed to elicit Veterans’ perceptions about the meaning of life and death since being diagnosed with cancer, as well as quantitative ratings about meaning making processes (see Additional file 2: Meaning Making: Time 2 Interview).…”