The therapeutic dimension of research about spirituality: Particularities of cancer, mental health and infertility

Abstract

Healthcare is moving from a biomedical paradigm into a holistic paradigm, which includes all dimensions and needs of patients and families. Health conditions may trigger a spiritual journey for believers or non‐believers bringing to light the nature of the human being and its vulnerable condition. Healthcare professionals are full participants in this life and health scenario and have an unquestionable duty related to the provision of spiritual care, on the basis of legislation, ethical codes, and on research evidence. Researchers are seizing better and broader knowledge about spirituality in healthcare, and research about this phenomenon is growing internationally. But, spirituality is considered complex, an area of intimacy and deep subjective meaning. These factors may raise some ethical concerns when submitting research projects to the ethics committees. In this paper, the authors share their experience in research about spirituality in the beginning of life issues/infertility and with adults with severe health conditions, and describe participants’ perspectives on research engagement.

Translation, Cultural, and Clinical Validation of the Lithuanian Version of the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire among Hospitalized Cancer Patients

“…In the item ‘for being complete and safe’, the word complete was confusing until explained as to be in complete health and wellbeing. The spiritual issues always relate to emotions and deep subjective meaning [1] and to reflect the intended emotion the strength of verb or adjective may be important in asking a particular question. For example, in our case, the item ‘to plunge into beauty of nature’ in the primary translation communicated ‘to admire the nature’; at the equivalence checking stage, the verb admire was noted as being too weak to express the original meaning, i.e., the feeling to be part of the nature, to ‘dissolve’ in nature.…”

“…Physicians, together with other professionals of healthcare, of course, have the duty to care for a person’s health and restoration of symptoms on the one hand. However, on the other hand—as part of a comprehensive healthcare concept—they should also consider addressing patients’ unmet spiritual concerns through providing spiritual care on the basis of legislation, ethical codes, and on research evidence [1]. Despite this understanding, in clinical practice, clinicians caring for cancer patients are firstly focused on medical diagnosis and clinical nursing problems, by prescribing treatment and medications—and often fail to address patients’ spiritual needs and/or identify signs of spiritual distress [2].…”

Spiritual Health First Aid for Self-Care

“…Nurses can tend to spiritual health needs by consciously planning self-care ( Caldeira et al, 2019 ). Spiritual health in the context of nurses and self-care is supported by research that emphasizes the therapeutic dimensions of spirituality (Caldiera et al, 2019).…”

Portuguese Version of the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire: Validation Study in People under Assisted Reproductive Techniques

“…Seeking instruments to measure spiritual well-being in different healthcare contexts is not new, but an approach to early-life events such as infertility is quite innovative (Caldeira et al 2019a;Romeiro et al 2017b;Romeiro and Caldeira 2018a).…”

“…A valid instrument is a critical condition for nursing assessment and diagnosis, as it is for planning and implementing nursing interventions and achieving positive health outcomes (Alfaro-LeFevre 2012; Caldeira et al 2019b;Romeiro and Caldeira 2018b). In addition, these are essential for the effective spiritual and self-healing process of individuals during fertility treatments (Caldeira et al 2019a).…”