The meaning of spirituality: a literature review

Abstract

This paper presents a literature review in relation to the meaning of spirituality. It is proposed that meeting the spiritual needs of patients is a fundamental part of providing holistic nursing care, but that the assessment and meeting of those needs is impeded by inadequate definitions and conceptual frameworks. It should not be assumed that spirituality is either synonymous, or coterminous, with religion, and it is suggested that to adopt this restrictive view is unhelpful in the provision of individualized care. Reflection on the literature reveals that the self, others and 'God' provide the key elements within a definition of spirituality, and that other emerging themes namely meaning, hope, relatedness/connectedness, beliefs/belief systems and expressions of spirituality, can be articulated in the context of those three key elements. In particular, it is proposed that the nature of 'God' may take many forms and, essentially, is whatever an individual takes to be of highest value in his/her life. It is suggested that the themes emerging from the literature can be utilized as a framework to give practitioners and researchers a direction for future exploration of the concept of spirituality.

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship Between Spirituality and Quality of Life

“…First, spirituality refers to a relationship to something that lies beyond the physical, psychological or social dimensions of life. This transcendent relational entity of spirituality has been labeled ''divinity'', ''a higher power'', a ''divine being '', ''ultimate reality'', ''God'' or ''god-being'' (Burkhardt, 1989;Emblen, 1992;Reed, 1993;Dyson et al, 1997;Larson et al, 1998;Thoresen, 1999). Second, spirituality is commonly associated with an existential search for meaning and purpose (Larson et al, 1998;Thoresen, 1999;Chiu et al, 2004).…”

Is there a correlation between spirituality and anxiety and depression in patients with advanced cancer?

“…Increasingly, the importance of this relationship is being recognised [28,30,41]. The words spirituality and religion are often used synonymously but actually have different meanings [1,9,10,12,18,26,27,34,38,40,42].…”

Existential concerns of terminally ill cancer patients receiving specialized palliative care in Japan

“…Empirical studies have suggested that terminally ill cancer patients have a variety of existential concerns, associated with serious psychological morbidity such as desire for death and suicide [3,5,8,9,18,23]. Existential distress described in the literature includes hopelessness, dependency, loss of control, loss of self-continuity, relatedness/isolation, meaninglessness, and loss of dignity [2,3,5,6,7,8,9,14,15,18,21,23]. However, these concepts have not been fully supported by empirical data, and few studies have been performed in Japan [11,16,22].…”