{"title":"Traces of spiritual care in nursing records: A qualitative study of cancer care.","authors":"Ingerd Irgens Hynnekleiv, Tove Giske, Kristin Heggdal","doi":"10.1111/scs.13294","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Serious illnesses, such as cancer, bring the threat of loss of health and life closer. This may compromise spiritual well-being. Addressing patients' spirituality is essential in nursing care. Therefore, nursing records should reflect, clarify, and enable spiritual-care follow-up.</p><p><strong>Aim: </strong>The aim of this study is to explore how spiritual care is expressed in nursing records in cancer care.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This study adopted a hermeneutic approach, and a qualitative content analysis was used to explore the nursing records of 43 inpatients with cancer from Norway. Ethical approval was obtained, and the privacy of the patients and healthcare professionals was safeguarded in line with the applicable legislation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Spiritual care was rarely reported in the nursing records (i.e., the nursing care plans and the progress notes). However, traces of spiritual care appeared in the records of everyday nursing. Four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) relieving life pain and mitigating loss, (2) facilitating faith support, (3) welcoming family and friends, and (4) sustaining normality and sharing joy.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study showed that the nursing records of cancer care seldom expressed spiritual care concerning patients' life pain, loss, or faith support. Increasing nurses' competencies in mapping, documenting, and attending to spiritual care, as well as overcoming the limitations of documentation systems, could help address the spiritual needs of cancer patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":48171,"journal":{"name":"Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences","volume":" ","pages":"924-935"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.13294","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/8/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"NURSING","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Serious illnesses, such as cancer, bring the threat of loss of health and life closer. This may compromise spiritual well-being. Addressing patients' spirituality is essential in nursing care. Therefore, nursing records should reflect, clarify, and enable spiritual-care follow-up.
Aim: The aim of this study is to explore how spiritual care is expressed in nursing records in cancer care.
Method: This study adopted a hermeneutic approach, and a qualitative content analysis was used to explore the nursing records of 43 inpatients with cancer from Norway. Ethical approval was obtained, and the privacy of the patients and healthcare professionals was safeguarded in line with the applicable legislation.
Results: Spiritual care was rarely reported in the nursing records (i.e., the nursing care plans and the progress notes). However, traces of spiritual care appeared in the records of everyday nursing. Four themes emerged from the analysis: (1) relieving life pain and mitigating loss, (2) facilitating faith support, (3) welcoming family and friends, and (4) sustaining normality and sharing joy.
Conclusions: This study showed that the nursing records of cancer care seldom expressed spiritual care concerning patients' life pain, loss, or faith support. Increasing nurses' competencies in mapping, documenting, and attending to spiritual care, as well as overcoming the limitations of documentation systems, could help address the spiritual needs of cancer patients.
期刊介绍:
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences is an established quarterly, peer reviewed Journal with an outstanding international reputation. As the official publication of the Nordic College of Caring Science, the Journal shares their mission to contribute to the development and advancement of scientific knowledge on caring related to health, well-being, illness and the alleviation of human suffering. The emphasis is on research that has a patient, family and community focus and which promotes an interdisciplinary team approach. Of special interest are scholarly articles addressing and initiating dialogue on theoretical, empirical and methodological concerns related to critical issues. All articles are expected to demonstrate respect for human dignity and accountability to society. In addition to original research the Journal also publishes reviews, meta-syntheses and meta-analyses.