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Spiritual Needs of Cancer Patients in Iran

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Spiritual Needs in Research and Practice

Abstract

As one of the existential dimensions of human beings and an influential factor on health, spirituality is of great significance in care provision for cancer patients. This concept is rooted in patients’ beliefs regarding health and disease, due to the cultural and the historical background of Iranians, most of whom are Muslims. Cancer patients have various spiritual needs and seek different coping methods to deal with their disease. One of these coping methods is the spiritual coping approach. In order to study the concept of spirituality and the spiritual needs of these patients, many studies have been done in Iran, applying different methodologies, mostly qualitative ones. Since in order to address the spiritual needs of patients it is necessary to have a proper tool for assessing these needs, the Spiritual Needs Assessment Scale of Patients with Cancer was developed, and simultaneously, the Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (SpNQ) was validated among the population of Iranian cancer patients. This chapter discusses the spiritual needs of Iranian cancer patients, the process of development and the psychometric evaluation of these tools and their similarities and differences.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Rassouli

  2. Pediatric Nursing Department, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Azam Shirinabadi Farahani

  3. Department of Nursing, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran

    Khadijeh Hatamipour

Authors
  1. Maryam Rassouli
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  2. Azam Shirinabadi Farahani
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  3. Khadijeh Hatamipour
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professorship Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Herdecke, Germany

    Arndt Büssing

  2. IUNCTUS—Competence Center for Christian Spirituality, Philosophical-Theological University of Münster, Münster, Germany

    Arndt Büssing

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Rassouli, M., Shirinabadi Farahani, A., Hatamipour, K. (2021). Spiritual Needs of Cancer Patients in Iran. In: Büssing, A. (eds) Spiritual Needs in Research and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70139-0_12

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