Undergraduate nursing students' experiences of palliative care in the intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: The terminal ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit had physical, mental, social, and spiritual suffering. Nursing students must be aware of own feelings to be able to deliver humanistic care and enable patients to live the rest of lives with dignity. The aim of the study was to investigate experiences of providing palliative care in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). METHOD: This study is a qualitative case study research. In-depth interviews were conducted with the key informants. The key informants were nine Thai third-year nursing students were purposively selected. RESULTS: The experiences of providing palliative care involved two Themes: (1) self-perception while providing care for terminal ill patients and (2) providing care for terminal ill patients with respect in the patients' dignity. CONCLUSION: These results can be applied to create learning activities to promote nursing students' self-awareness and enable them to provide humanized care for terminal ill patients.

Spiritual Care Needs of Terminal Ill Cancer Patients.

OBJECTIVE: Terminal ill cancer patients experience spiritual distress and need spiritual care. They are in need of palliative care in the long term to alleviate suffering. The aim of the study was to investigate spiritual needs of terminal ill cancer patients. METHODS: This study is a cross-sectional study. The participants were Thai terminal ill cancer patients from seven hospitals in northern, northeast, central, and southern regions of Thailand. Three-hundred-and-twenty-two participants were purposively selected. The instrument used in this study was a spiritual needs scale, consisting of 41 items with 4-point rating scale. Statistical analysis was F-test for one-way analysis of variance. RESULTS: The majority of terminal ill cancer patients aged fifty-one years old. Most of them were females with end stage cancer status that did not respond to treatment. The overall spiritual needs of terminal ill cancer patients were at the moderate level (M = 18.21, SD = 2.56). The highest mean was found in the 'prepare for death' dimension, followed by the 'have meaning, values, and life purposes' and the 'have opportunity to pursue most important things in life' dimensions respectively and had different spiritual needs among status (F(3,318) = 3.66, p < 0.05), number of family members (F(8,313) = 5.07,  p < 0.05), living with family (F(2,319) = 3.91, p < 0.05), and spiritual anchor (F(2,319) = 4.13, p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The study results provide insight into spiritual needs of terminal ill cancer patients which assists in improving the provision of holistic care to let the patients be happy at end-of-life phase.

Development of the Spirituality in Palliative Care Scale for nursing students in the context of Thai culture.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students form part of the healthcare team who care for patients who are living with a terminal illness and facing physical and spiritual suffering. However, there is a lack of suitable indicators to measure a nurse's spirituality when they are providing palliative care. AIM: To develop a way of measuring the spirituality of nurses who provide palliative care. METHOD: The participants consisted of 312 third-and fourth-year nursing students of two nursing colleges from southern and central Thailand. FINDING: The 12-item Spirituality in Palliative Care Scale had the reliability of .804. The measurement model was consistent with the empirical data and had unidimensional quality (X2=50.94, df=45, p-value=0.25, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)=0.044, Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (SRMR)=0.044, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI)=0.95, Corporate Finance Institute (CFI)=0.97, goodness of fit (GFI)=0.97). The items' factor loadings were in between .48 and .84. CONCLUSION: The spirituality in palliative care scale can measure nursing students' spirituality in palliative care and nursing educators can use the measurement to support nursing students to develop greater awareness of spirituality in palliative care.

Spiritual dimension in palliative care from the perspective of Thai palliative caregivers.

BACKGROUND: In Thailand, most terminally ill patients die in hospital and are looked after by health professionals. Terminally ill patients tend to receive physical care only, while in the main, spiritual care is neglected. This study aimed to explore spirituality in palliative care health professionals and spiritual leaders in the Thai Buddhist context. METHOD: In this qualitative case study, seven experienced palliative caregivers took part in in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis and a trustworthiness process were used to analyse the data. FINDINGS: Three themes emerged: (1) the ability for self-awareness and faith; (2) acceptance and compassion for others; and (3) spiritual behaviour while nursing. CONCLUSION: The results revealed the meaning of spirituality and the necessary characteristics for spirituality in palliative care for the participants, which could serve as a basis for further development.