Spiritual Lived Experiences of Patients with a History of COVID-19: APhenomenological Study

This research aimed to explore the spiritual experiences of patients who had had COVID-19, as spirituality is believed to provide support and aid in coping with stress and illness. The COVID-19 pandemic has become a significant public health issue globally, including in Iran.

This qualitative study was conducted with a hermeneutic phenomenology approach. Data were collected between November 2022 and May 2023. The researchers held interviews with 14 patients admitted to a hospital in Tehran, capital city of Iran. Data were analyzed based on the approach of Dickelman et al. Lincoln and Guba criteria including credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability were used for assessment of data trustworthiness.

It was found that spiritual experiences of the participants can be divided into 3 themes including “Psychic Experiences”, “Experiences of Deferring” and “Spiritual Dream Experiences”, and a constitutive pattern named “the Experience of the Holy”.

The constitutive pattern of "the Experience of the Holy" and its 3 themes highlight the deep impact of spirituality on the experiences and recovery of illness and emphasizes the importance of addressing the spiritual needs of patients in health care settings and the role of spirituality in dealing with illness and promoting spirituality.