Spiritual pain: A comparison of findings from survivors and hospice patients

Abstract

The article presents comparative research findings on the notion of "spiritual pain." The findings from interviews with hospice patients affirm the previously published, preliminary conceptualization of spiritual pain from interviews with survivors. However, while the survivor findings highlight the potential for spiritual pain associated with life after high-tech curative treatment, the hospice patient data emphasize the protectiveness of the hospice experience for deflecting the possibility of spiritual pain. It is anticipated the discussion of comparative findings will affirm the importance of researching this "ignored dimension" and, in so doing, will enrich our understanding of the spiritual dimension of healthcare. The work is part of a program presently developing a language of spirituality through research.

Experiences of Pain: A Longitudinal, Qualitative Study of Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Recently Treated with Radiotherapy

“…Patient' relationships with their relatives improved and the value of material things declined, a development that was also noted in earlier studies carried out primarily with palliative and terminal patients (Adelbratt & Strang, 2000;McGrath, 2003). Yalom (1980) concludes that re-evaluation and reprioritization can be viewed as a way of gaining something positive from an external threat to life.…”

Existential encounters: Nurses' descriptions of critical incidents in end-of-life cancer care

“…It seems that existential suffering comes in many ways for these patients. In the literature there is currently no standard definition of existential pain, but generally, existential pain has been used as a metaphor for suffering (Saunders, 1988;McGrath, 2002McGrath, , 2003Musi, 2003;Strang et al, 2004). Strang et al (2004) concluded that it is obvious that existential pain is not a uniformly defined entity, as it obviously can be understood both as existential suffering and/or pain expressed in physical terms.…”

Creating the space for spiritual talk: insights from survivors of haematological malignancies

“…Although for some spirituality embraces religiosity (McGrath & Newell 200I), for most it is 'quintessentially of the ordinary' (McGrath 2002a) and refers to the sense they are making out of their life and illness experiences (McGrath 2002ba;2002c;2002d;2003a;2003b;2003c;McGrath & Newell 2002). However, the preliminary findings also posit 'connection' as an additional, but essential, dimension of the notion of spirituality.…”

“…The indications from the research are that individuals need a strong connection with life through family, friends, work and leisure, in order to deal with making sense of the challenge of serious illness. Such a connection can be threatened by a break with the normal or expected relationships and dissatisfaction with life through physical, identity, relational, and existential losses (McGrath, 2003a). When the disconnection is acutely painful (a subjective phenomenon depending on the individual), it is then experienced as 'spiritual pain', creating a void that challenges the individual's ability to make meaning from his or her existence (McGrath 2002b).…”

“…The problem is that family and friends perceive the medical drama to be over at a time when many patients are only starting to deal with the emotional and spiritual consequences. Although the full findings on this issues are published elsewhere (McGrath, 2002b;2003a), an indication of the problem can be seen in the following statement:…”