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Perceived Barriers to Providing Spiritual Care in Palliative Care among Professionals: A Portuguese Cross-Sectional Study

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  • Carlos Laranjeira

    (School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic of Leiria, Campus 2, Morro do Lena, Alto do Vieiro, Apartado 4137, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal
    Centre for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechCare), Polytechnic of Leiria, Rua de Santo André—66–68, Campus 5, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal
    Comprehensive Health Research Centre (CHRC), University of Évora, 7000-801 Évora, Portugal)

  • Maria Anjos Dixe

    (School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic of Leiria, Campus 2, Morro do Lena, Alto do Vieiro, Apartado 4137, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal
    Centre for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechCare), Polytechnic of Leiria, Rua de Santo André—66–68, Campus 5, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal)

  • Ana Querido

    (School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic of Leiria, Campus 2, Morro do Lena, Alto do Vieiro, Apartado 4137, 2411-901 Leiria, Portugal
    Centre for Innovative Care and Health Technology (ciTechCare), Polytechnic of Leiria, Rua de Santo André—66–68, Campus 5, 2410-541 Leiria, Portugal
    Group Innovation & Development in Nursing (NursID), Center for Health Technology and Services Research (CINTESIS@RISE), 4200-450 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

Spiritual care is an important dimension of palliative care (PC) and a facet of holistic care that helps ill people find meaning in their suffering and lives. This study aims to: (a) develop and test the psychometric properties of a new instrument, Perceived Barriers to Spiritual Care (PBSC); (b) explore participants’ perceptions of how prevalent those (pre-identified) barriers are; and (c) examine the association of their personal and professional characteristics with those perceptions. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using a self-reporting online survey. In total, 251 professionals registered with the Portuguese Association of Palliative Care (APCP) completed the study. The majority of respondents were female (83.3%), nurses (45.4%), had more than 11 years of professional experience (66.1%), did not work in PC (61.8%), and had a religious affiliation (81.7%). The psychometric assessment using PBSC provided sound evidence for its validity and reliability. The three most common perceived barriers were late referral for palliative care (78.1%), work overload (75.3%), and uncontrolled physical symptoms (72.5%). The least commonly perceived barriers were different spiritual beliefs among professionals (10.8%), differences between the beliefs of professionals and patients (14.4%), and the shame of approaching spirituality in a professional context (26.7%). The findings show there is some relationship between sex, age, years of professional experience, working in PC, having a religious affiliation, the importance of spiritual/religious beliefs, and responses to the PBSC tool. The results highlight the importance of advanced training in spirituality and intervention strategies. Further research is needed to properly study the impacts of spiritual care and establish outcome assessments that accurately reflect the effects of the various spiritual care activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Laranjeira & Maria Anjos Dixe & Ana Querido, 2023. "Perceived Barriers to Providing Spiritual Care in Palliative Care among Professionals: A Portuguese Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(12), pages 1-13, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:12:p:6121-:d:1170535
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ferda Ozbasaran & Safak Ergul & Ayla Bayik Temel & Gulsah Gurol Aslan & Ayden Coban, 2011. "Turkish nurses’ perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(21‐22), pages 3102-3110, November.
    2. Susan Ronaldson & Lillian Hayes & Christina Aggar & Jennifer Green & Michele Carey, 2012. "Spirituality and spiritual caring: nurses’ perspectives and practice in palliative and acute care environments," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(15‐16), pages 2126-2135, August.
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