Dimensions of the Spiritual Needs of Muslim Chronic Patients: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Spiritual care is helpful for chronic patients in tolerating symptoms and dealing with conflicts relating to their diagnoses. The purpose of this study was to explore dimensions of the spiritual needs of chronic Muslim patients. This exploratory qualitative study was conducted in Isfahan, Iran, with a purposive sample of 25 participants, including patients, family caregivers, nurses, physicians, psychologists, social workers, and religious counselors. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed through conventional content analysis. Results fell into two main themes: The first theme was transcendental needs, with two subthemes of religious needs and epistemology needs. The second theme was pleasurable needs and consisted of two subthemes, psycho-spiritual needs and spiritual support needs. Providing spiritual support helps patients handle the problems of illness. The themes of spirituality revealed in this study have possible implications for routine patient care interactions.