Oncology Nurses Spiritual Health Experience: A Qualitative Content Analysis

Spiritual health has been attended to in recent years as one of the factors affecting health consequences in human. According to review of literature, nurses’ spiritual health can impact spiritual health care. Therefore, this qualitative study aimed to determine the spiritual health experiences of oncology nurses. In this phenomenological qualitative research, 24 oncology nurses from 12 teaching hospitals affiliated to Tehran and Shahid Beheshti Universities of Medical Sciences were enrolled. Data were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews and two group meetings of 16 nurses with enough age and sex diversity, and analyzed by qualitative content analysis. After analysis, 11 main categories were identified: belief in religion, Quran and judgment day; belief in God, prophets and imams; perceiving philosophy and regulations of creation; theology and seeking help from God; seeking and worshiping God; perfect health; scientific and sacrificial nursing; satisfaction with life; reaching perfection and transcendence; meaning and objective in life and internal energy resources. Oncology nurses experience spiritual health as believing in God and Quran, perceiving the mystery of creating and attempting to know God (religious health), having perfect health, scientific nursing, satisfaction with work and life, and seeking meaning and objective in life (existential health).