The influence of spirituality at the beginning and at the end of life. Study from the perspective of nursing professionals

Abstract

Spirituality is the human dimension that helps human beings to reflect about their own existence, to try to answer to questions like: what are we living for? This search of meaning is still more pronounced in those who suffer an advanced and incurable disease. This clear need is nevertheless not always acknowledge by the patient, making it difficult to detect and manage it in the daily care by healthcare professionals. In an effort to establish an effective therapeutic relationship, they have to keep in mind also this spiritual dimension, already integrated in the concept of comprehensive care and usually offered to all patients, especially in those who are at the end of life. With this work we have tried, on the one hand, to know the opinion of nurses and TCAE about spirituality through a self-design survey. On the other hand, we wanted to know how this suffering experience may impact on the professionals, as well as if the development of their own spirituality, differently expressed, may have positive effects on the patients. To this end, healthcare professionals have been selected from an oncology unit, those who day by day are facing the impact of suffering and death of their patients.