Correlation Between Spiritual Well-Being and Hope in Patients with Cancer

Lim, Hyun Sook; Oh, Pok Ja

Abstract

This study will test one's spiritual well-being which can be an effective hope factor, and, if so found, suggests the importance of such factors in healing cancer. From this research, a total of 97 samples were used, either hospitalized in or outpatients of the general hospitals in Seoul. The hope scale proposed by Paloutzion and Ellison(1982) and Nowotny's Hope Scale(1989) was used. Data was collected from February to April 1998 to be processed by the SAS statistical package. The study has resulted as follows: 1. The average score and the standard deviation of the overall spiritual well-being recorded 82.36 +/- 15.93, with religious and existential sectors being 40.81 +/- 10.27 and 41.55 +/- 7.72, respectively. 2. The spiritual well-being scores differed significantly according to the sample's level of education, religion, belief, the length of period of religious practices, and the frequency of participation in the religious meeting. 3. THe hope score of the sampled cancer patients showed an average of 82.94 with the standard deviation of 10.27. 4. The demographic characteristics were found to have resulted in a significant difference in the hope scores in such areas as religion and strength of the faith. 5. The hypothesis was supported that the spiritual well-being has a positive effect on the patient's hope (r=.632, p=.0001). 6. A multiple regression analysis indicated that the existential well-being(50%), age(5%), and the religious well-being(2%) significantly explained the hope scores. Viewing that religion and faith contributed significantly to a patient's spiritual well-being and hope, nurses should better regard and furthermore encourage the religious life of the cancer patient. Also suggested is that spiritual caring proven very effective by this study be applied actively in enhancing the hope for the cancer patients.