Perceptions of the spiritual dimension of patients under palliative care for gastric câncer

Abstract

Introduction: The relationship between health and spirituality gained relevance from the recognition of the importance of multidimensional patient care, respecting the biopsychosocial and spiritual aspects. Spirituality integrated into Palliative Care (PC) allows patients affected by neoplasms in the non-curative phase of treatment to have greater understanding and acceptance of the diagnosis of the disease, thus enabling the humanization of care. Methodology: Qualitative and descriptive cross-sectional research, carried out with patients diagnosed with GC in PC. The assessment of the spiritual dimension of the chosen patients was conducted through the application of the Spiritual Anamnesis, using the FICA script. Based on the results, discourse analysis was carried out using the thematic content analysis technique. Results: Of the total of 83 patients with GC, between 2021 and 2023, 35 eligible to form the study sample were included. Following the analysis of the FICA script, it was observed that in the “Faith or Belief” category, 44.44% of patients demonstrated that they had faith or belief in God and 26.38% considered spirituality as a positive factor in their lives. In the “Importance” category, 23.77% used faith as support to deal with psychological issues and 22.13% believed in the improvement of the clinical state through faith/belief in God. In relation to the “Community” category, 33.05% reported having spiritual support from a religious community and 26.27% found support related to family/friend ties. In the “Action” category, 40.0% of patients considered the medical/health team approach to spirituality during treatment to be relevant and 31.42% denied the approach to spirituality during medical treatment. Conclusions: The analysis of spiritual anamnesis revealed that spirituality had positive impacts on patients with GC under PC, playing, for the majority, a significant supporting role at the time of diagnosis and throughout the treatment of the disease.