Spiritual needs of Taiwan's older patients with terminal cancer.
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.
Shih
Fu-Jin
FJ
Institute of Clinical and Community Health Nursing, Department and Institute of Nursing, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Lin
Hung-Ru
HR
Gau
Meei-Ling
ML
Chen
Ching-Huey
CH
Hsiao
Szu-Mei
SM
Shih
Shaw-Nin
SN
Sheu
Shuh-Jen
SJ
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