Spiritual distress-proposing a new definition and defining characteristics.

OBJECTIVE To identify the definition and defining characteristics (DCs) of spiritual distress (00066). METHOD Integrative literature review. RESULTS Thirty-seven articles and 35 DCs were identified. Spiritual distress as a response to health problems in the context of nursing care is different from an impaired ability to experience and integrate meaning in life. CONCLUSIONS The diagnosis misses some DCs that emerged from the literature review and lacks comprehensiveness. The domain and the class are reductionist toward its meaning. The taxonomy lacks a spiritual domain to include this and other diagnoses currently dispersed in other domains. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Further content and clinical validation is needed, as well as an assessment, to determine the diagnosis' class and domain.