Purpose: Integrating spirituality into the patient care within a healthcare team, increases the ability to provide "holistic care" for cancer patients. The spiritual care experiences of different involved persons can be a guide for future planning. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the spiritual care experiences of hospitalized cancer patients, their family caregivers and healthcare team members in oncology settings.
Methods: This is a descriptive qualitative study which was conducted with 21 participants, who were selected by purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. The data were analyzed with conventional content analysis method.
Results: Two themes of "systematic care" and "caring with paradoxical results" were extracted from the spiritual care experiences of our participants.
Conclusions: Spiritual care as professional, comprehensive, collaborative and artistic care should be provided in a multidisciplinary healthcare team for cancer patients. Otherwise, patients may experience deprivation of spiritual services and consequently, spiritual distress.
Keywords: Cancer patient; Holistic care; Oncology setting; Spiritual care.
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