Assessing the Spiritual Well-Being of Filipino Cancer Patients: A Nursing Perspective

Abstract

Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Philippines. It is a serious disease that can result in not just physical and psychosocial difficulties but also spiritual distress. Knowing Filipinos have a high reverence to God, this can affect their health-related behavior and responses to illness like cancer.

This study aimed to assess the spiritual well-being of Filipino adult cancer patients ages nineteen (19) to sixty (60) years old in a tertiary hospital. The objectives were: to determine the spiritual well-being of the patients (as measured by the Ideal and Personal states of Spiritual well-being and presence of Spiritual Dissonance); to determine the relationship between the spiritual well-being of the patients and the patient factors, and to describe the spiritual well-being experiences of the patients.

A descriptive correlational research was used. The results showed that the patients had the highest spiritual well-being in the Transcendental Domain which describes one’s relationship with God. Seven (7) out of the ninety (90) participants had spiritual dissonance which made them at possible risk for spiritual distress. Age, the type of cancer, and the treatment received had significant relationship with the patient’s spiritual well-being. Triangulation of qualitative data based on the patients’ response of the HOPE Questions was also done. Themes identified were “love of God, family, and friends”, “community affinity”, “fidelity to prayer”, “test of Faith”, and “empathy”.

In conclusion, Filipino adult cancer patients have high spiritual well-being despite the cancer burden. Havin this illness was a test of faith in which time had been an important component. At first, the patients experienced doubts their spiritual beliefs but eventually, with the acceptance of the illness comes a stronger faith in God. God, family, and friends had been their main source of strength, motivation, and hope. The religious community of the patients also helped develop the patient’s spiritual well-being through prayer and other spiritual acts, and by providing support to the patients.

In the presence of cancer where the body and mind go weak, the cancer patients rely on the spirit to pull him or her through. This is where nursing plays an important role. The therapeutic interpersonal process between a nurse and a patient can help the patient develop aspects of life that he or she deems important in his or her spiritual health. Nurses can provide spiritual care to the cancer patients by identifying their spiritual needs, praying with them, allowing them to practice their spiritual beliefs, and by empathizing with them.