Heart failure is a chronic debilitating disease that affects all aspects of a person's life, including physical, mental and spiritual dimensions. The associations among these dimensions, and the relationship to overall health status, have not been clearly identified. The purpose of this quantitative, descriptive study was to explore differences between spirituality, depressive symptoms, and qua...

The purpose of this paper will be to provide a perspective on the current state of the research evaluating the neurobiological correlates of spiritual practices and review the methodological issues that confront this research field. There are many types of spiritual practices that might be studied including prayer and meditation, as well as unusual practices such as mediumistic trance states, s...

Clinical studies are beginning to clarify how spirituality and religion can contribute to the coping strategies of many patients with severe, chronic, and terminal conditions. The ethical aspects of physician attention to the spiritual and religious dimensions of patients' experiences of illness require review and discussion. Should the physician discuss spiritual issues with his or her patient...

We examined experiencing divine love as an indicator of affective spiritual growth in a prospective cohort of 200 patients surviving cardiac surgery. These patients previously completed two-wave preoperative interviews when standardized cardiac surgery data were also collected. The information included left ventricular ejection fraction, New York Heart Association Classification, baseline healt...

Previous researchers who have studied children’s spirituality have often used narrow measures that do not account for the rich spiritual experiences of children within a multi-faith context. In the current study, we describe the initial stages of development of a children’s spirituality measure, in which items were derived from children’s spiritual narratives. An exploratory factor analysis of ...

Purpose Spirituality plays an important role for many people. In particular, its crucial role among people at the end-oflife (EoL) has been recognized. Currently one out of 4 deaths in the US is a veteran. The study of spirituality among veterans who are at the EoL is therefore urgently needed. The objectives of this study are to understand the spiritual needs and spiritual care provided to vet...

intellectuals as a group of spiritual practices and as a body of spiritual wisdom. The study has been realized through readings and meetings with Japanese Buddhist monks and/or Japanese immigrants. These intellectuals defend a religious experience based on a universal notion of representations of Japanese Buddhism, which provides them with a non-dualistic philosophical perspective and a unique ...

We interviewed the general practitioners (GPs) of 40 patients with life-threatening illnesses over the course of the last year of life. We asked them to identify their patients' holistic needs, and to discuss whether they considered that they had a role in providing 'spiritual care'. The GPs varied greatly in their understanding of their patients' experiences and needs. Most said that they had ...

OBJECTIVE This pilot study was designed to describe changes in spiritual well-being (SWB), spiritual coping, and quality of life (QOL) in patients with brain cancer or other neurodegenerative diseases participating in a chaplain-led spiritual life review interview and development of a spiritual legacy document (SLD). METHODS Eligible participants were enrolled and completed baseline questionn...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To determine what patients with cancer and primary family caregivers expect from nurses with regard to having their spiritual needs addressed. RESEARCH APPROACH Descriptive, cross-sectional, qualitative study using Miles and Huberman s approach to data reduction. SETTING Outpatient and inpatient settings in a county hospital and a comprehensive cancer center, both located...