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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Background Spiritual distress is defned as a lack of meaning in life, disconnection, sufering and anger at God. Also, spiritual distress, is a nursing diagnosis according to NANDA-International, Inc, which hopelessness is one of the defning characteristics. The aim of this study was to assess hopelessness as a predictor of in spiritual distress nursing diagnosis in cancer patients during chemotherapy treatment. Materials and methods A quantitative, observational and follow up study. It was comprised 322 outpatients with cancer followed at an Oncology Unit, randomly selected. The data was collected when patients were initiating chemotherapy and then quarterly until completing one year of chemotherapy. In addition, data collection occurred between February 2019 and May 2015, and was applied a questionnaire. The data was analyzed statistically through the program SPSS version 21. This study, was approved by the hospital´s Ethics Committee where the study was conducted. Results The initial sample embraced 188 females and 144 males. The dropout rate of this study reached 17,5% after twelve months. The age range was between 22 to 83 years old. Most of the patients had breast cancer (n=27.70%), colorectal cancer (n=23.7%) and lung cancer (n=14.8%). The frequency of hopelessness during the chemotherapy increased its value, such as before chemotherapy (n=55, 10.5%), after three months (n= 40, 12.7%), after six months (n= 41, 13.5%), after nine months (n= 40, 14.0%) and after twelve months (n= 42, 15.3%). Hopelessness was a predictor of spiritual distress after nine (ꞵ=3.254, p=0.029) and twelve months (ꞵ=3.461, p=0.019) since the beginning of chemotherapy. Conclusions At the end of nine months after the start of chemotherapy, hopelessness appears as a predictive variable for the diagnosis of spiritual distress, therefore nurses can anticipate autonomous nursing interventions with the purpose for the readiness for enhanced hope in cancer patients.