A Study of Religious Care Needs in Patients Admitted to Allameh Bohlool Gonabadi Hospital

Religious activities are considered as an important source for dealing with diseases. Research has shown that religion and religious beliefs are effective in adapting to adversity, and help the patient regain his/her health sooner. Anxiety caused by separation from religious orders has a negative effect on the course of the disease and prolongs hospital stay and causes undesirable psychological complications in individuals. Therefore, the study was designed to investigate the religious care needs of the patients admitted to Allameh Behlool Gonabadi Hospital.

This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed with the participation of 622 patients admitted to Allameh Bohlool Gonabadi Hospital in 2018. Data were collected through demographic information questionnaire and religious care questionnaire in general wards of the hospital. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and analytical statistics. In this study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

Based on the obtained results, the mean and standard deviation of age and length of hospitalization of the participants in this study were 46.50±21.21 and 2.76±2.64, respectively. Out of the 60.5% female participants, 78.5% were married and 48.4% were housewives. Also, 60% of them were literate. In addition, the results of chi-square test showed a significant relationship in all dimensions of religious needs (P<0.001).

According to the results of this study, religious care is very important and necessary from the patients’ perspective. Therefore, it is suggested that managers and planners of hospital care departments consider religious care as a part of comprehensive hospital care to keep the patients satisfied with the provision of nursing care.