Spiritual care is a practice of aiding people in the recognition and acceptance of spirituality and addressing the questions of one’s meaning in life, legacy, purpose, hope, and faith. The role of spiritual care in nursing is both recognized and undermined. There is certain skepticism in the discussion of the effectiveness of spirituality. However, the research in nursing practices for cancer patients suggests that the efficacy of spiritual care is significant. The five research papers exploring spiritual care’s effects on patients with cancer suggests a positive effect on patients without marginal difference in age and gender. In this paper, five peer-reviewed journal articles would review to demonstrate the effectiveness of spiritual care and indicate the methodology explored to highlight the significance of spirituality in nursing practices.
The research by Joo and Kim (2020) focused on the spiritual care analysis among elderly patients hospitalized with cancer. The participants were 50 people whose ages exceeded 65 years (Joo and Kim, 2020). They were divided into two groups: experimental and control groups. The first group received spiritual care for half an hour three times over three days. The individuals were interviewed before and after the experiment to analyze the changes in spiritual well-being (Joo and Kim, 2020). Before the experiment, each group indicated similar general and disease-related characteristics, anxiety, and spiritual health conditions. After the experiment, the test group indicated a significant increase in spiritual well-being and a decrease in anxiety in contrast to the control group (Joo and Kim, 2020).
According to Torabi et al. (2018), spiritual care among adolescents is effective. The research followed a single-group, quasi-experimental, pre-/poststudy design with 32 adolescent participants. Torabi et al. (2018) argue that spiritual health is significantly different before and after the intervention. However, the follow-up condition of the patients suggests no marginal difference in well-being, indicating the need for continuity of care practices.
The article by Sajadi et al. (2018) analyzed the effect of spiritual counseling on Iranian female cancer patients. The methodology utilized for the research explores the difference between two groups consisting of 42 women with and without an 8-week counseling intervention. The results were collected using Paloutzian and Ellison’s Spiritual Well-Being Scale (Joo and Kim, 2020). Consequently, the participants illustrate significant improvements in the spiritual well-being of the experimental group.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of spiritual care on cancer patients and oncology nurses. The research collected data from the viewpoints of the patients, their families, the nurses, and other healthcare team members. In 2016–2017, the current qualitative investigation was carried out utilizing traditional content analysis (Moosavi et al., 2019). The 18 participants were subjected to semi-structured in-depth interviews where the data were gathered (Moosavi et al., 2019). One typical outcome of spiritual care was the patient and the nurse finding peace (Moosavi et al., 2019). It enables the nurse to finally feel inner pleasure while helping the patient feel at ease and peace.
Understanding the nature and significance of the experience of cancer patients receiving spiritual nursing was the aim of this study. From April to June 2019, participants were interviewed in-depth one-on-one (Seo et al., 2019). This research involved eight patients from a single Christian hospital. The Collaizzi phenomenological approach was used to gather and analyze cyclical data (Seo et al., 2019). Four themes emerged from the experiences of cancer patients who received spiritual care: odd spiritual care in the face of longing; feeling of surprising changes; spiritual compassion leading to trust; and transition to spiritual healing (Seo et al., 2019).
Each of the five chosen articles suggests that spiritual care’s effectiveness in improving well-being and reducing anxiety is eminent. The research by Joo and Kim (2020), Torabi et al. (2018), Sajadi et al. (2018), and Moosavi (2019) utilized a similar approach where an experimental group with the spiritual intervention was compared to the control group. The difference lies in the number of participants, data collection method, location, age, and gender. Seo et al. (2019) focused on the qualitative assessment of the participants’ condition via interviews to which the researchers observed four critical responses. Nevertheless, they were mostly positive about the imp
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