Spirituality in Palliative Care – A Scoping Review and Thematic Analysis
Abstract
The global need for palliative care is increasing. Unfortunately, spirituality and its relation and presentation in palliative care is not well understood or researched. It is the least understood aspect of palliative care. Three demographic trends contribute to this rise in palliative care: medical technologies driving longer life expectancy and longevity, increase in the aging population, and increasing number of individuals facing multimorbidity. These factors are increasing the demand for palliative care. The aim of this thesis is to explore how older persons experience and navigate spirituality in palliative care, and therefore provide novel suggestions that ensure palliative care provides whole-person care and understands how spiritual distress may present itself. To map the literature, a scoping review was conducted to identify the original qualitative studies examining the issue. 40 qualitative studies were included in the scoping review and a thematic analysis was conducted to extract themes. In regards to how persons in palliative care experience spirituality, the following three themes emerged: Feelings of stress, and anxiety, Identity crisis/questioning of one’s purpose, Feelings of abandonment and isolation. For the purpose of devising practical solutions, older persons’ interactions with healthcare providers were also reported. The novelty of this scoping review and associated thematic analysis lies in understanding how spiritual distress and suffering may manifest in palliative care, and consequently its effect on how the illness is experienced. Therefore, we offer practical solutions integrating spirituality as a core component in provision of palliative care and ways of addressing palliative patients in totality.