Spiritual Needs of Patients with Cancer Referred to Alinasab and Shahid Ghazi Tabatabaie Hospitals of Tabriz, Iran

atients’ spiritual needs increase drastically after a diagnosis of cancer because of its threatening
nature. It is very important to recognize any spiritual crisis. This study aimed to determine needs among Iranian
patients with cancer. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was undertaken among 200 patients
with cancer referred to Alinasab and Shahid Ghazi Tabatabaie hospitals of Tabriz, Iran. The Spiritual Needs
Scale was used for data collection. Results: The mean age of participants was 45.9±16.4 years. The majority
expressed their main spiritual wishes as “think to God”, “trust to God”, “see others happy”, “try for life beside
the disease”, “to be prayed for by others’, and “need for kindness and help others”. Regarding the relationship
between demographic characteristics, factors related to disease and the total score of spiritual needs, the results
of chi-square tests showed a signifcant statistical correlations with occupation (p=0.01) and number of children
(p=0.03) . Also the results of Pearson correlation showed that there is a signifcant statistical correlation between
hospitalization frequency and patients’ spiritual needs (p<0.01, r=-0.24). Conclusions: Determination of spiritual
needs of patients with cancer in this study can help health carers and especially nurses to design appropriate
spiritual care programs based on individual preferences