title: Spiritual needs of Taiwan's older patients with terminal cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the core constitutive patterns from the perspective of the older patient with terminal cancer, the major foci of spiritual needs, and professional actions that manifest tangibly as spiritual care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hermeneutic inquiry.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two leading teaching hospitals in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  35 older patients with terminal cancer with a life expectancy of three months.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participatory observation and in-depth interviews were the major data collection strategies. Hermeneutic inquiry was used to disclose, document, and interpret participants' lived experiences.
  
  
  METHODS
  The perceptions of older Taiwanese patients with terminal cancer and their particular healthcare needs across various transition stages.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two constitutive patterns, "caring for the mortal body" and "transcending the worldly being," each with three themes and a related transformational process emerged from the data analysis. Two foci of spiritual needs were discovering patients' concerns about their dying bodies and their worldly being and facilitating the transcendence of the spiritual being from the physical realm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Caring for older Taiwanese patients with terminal cancer and helping them transcend the fear of the unknown when they give up worldly being can produce insights into patients' primary concerns, perceptions, and spiritual needs to help them achieve a "good" death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The knowledge gained in this study and the six major spiritual care actions identified may empower oncology nurse educators to develop culturally valid spiritual care courses. Research-based guidance for nurse clinicians who are taking care of older Taiwanese patients with terminal cancer will be provided.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical and Community Health Nursing, Department and Institute of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Fu-Jin
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Hung-Ru
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Meei-Ling
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Gau
authors.forename: Ching-Huey
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Szu-Mei
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: Shaw-Nin
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Shuh-Jen
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sheu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001293:Attitude to Death; D003469:Culture; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005655:Funeral Rites; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D029181:Spirituality; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013727:Terminal Care; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology