| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔英科技大學 === 護理系碩士班 === 107 === Background: Spirituality is very important for cancer patients during the illness based on the literature evidences; however, literature on the spirituality of cancer patients were mainly focused on Western population, but few literature were found in Asians. Specially, there is no one spiritual study on cancer patients found in Vietnamese hospitals. Therefore, the investigator would like to understand the spiritual distress of cancer patients in Vietnam.
Aim: The purpose of this study was to survey the spiritual distress of cancer patients at two general hospitals in northern Vietnam. Especially, the investigator would like to understand the spiritual distress of cancer patients in terms of the relationship with themselves, others, religion, and facing death.
Methods: This is a quantitative study with cross sectional design. This study used purposively sampling with fitting the inclusion criteria of totally 132 cancer patients. The scale in this study was used Spiritual Distress Scale (SDS) with the appropriate reliability and validity. The data collection was by the investigator in the bedside of two general hospitals in northern Vietnam after IRB approving by the Research Council. Samples of cancer patients in the study must agree and sign the consent forms to participate in research following the ethic principles of benefits, fairness, and confidentiality. Analysis of data used the SPSS software 16.0 by the descriptive and advanced statistical data analysis.
Results: The good content and construct validitys of the SDS-Vietnam version were identified after forward and backward translations with three experts’ evaluations as well as the factor analysis. In terms of the demographics and spiritual distress, age and income did correlate with the spiritual distress significantly among 132 Vietnam cancer patients. Among four dimensions of SDS-Vietnam version, the majority of cancer patients reported the good relationship with others and religion. Regarding the relationship with the patients themselves, more than 50% of cancer patients reported suffering (64.4%) and sorrow (53.8%). However, the majority of them did not feel lonliness. Regarding facing the death, the majority of them were not afraid to discuss the death and worry about dying ceremony; however, they worried about dying situation (70.5%). Additionally, 128 Vietnam cancer patients reported top three spiritual needs and demands including illness progress better, a peaceful death, and hoping to prolong life.
Conclusion: The aging and poverty issues in Vietnam 132 cancer patients were correlated with their SDS significantly. Additionally, they did feel suffering and sorrow as well as worry about the dying situation of the SDS. However, the relationship with others and religions of SDS were in the good status for Vietnam 132 cancer patients. Furthermore, Vietnam cancer patients concerned about their illness progress with hoping to prolong life as their spiritual needs and demands.
Clinical implication: Since the relationship with others and religions of SDS were in the good status for Vietnam 132 cancer patients, the healthcare professionals could study the effective strategies for applying the above strengths into reducing the suffering and sorrow feelings as well as worry about the dying situation. Additionally, the cross-culture future study of SDS between Chinese and Vietnam cancer patients could compare the cultural differences in the relationshoip with themselves, others, religion, and facing death of SDS.
Keywords: Cancer Patient, Spiritual Distress
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