تأثیر مشاورۀ معنوی بر رضایت از زندگی بیماران مبتلا به سرطان

Introduction: As therapeutic interventions had completely failed to cope with the problems facing patients with cancer, consulting with a spiritual approach in patients with cancer has been considered by researchers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of spiritual consultation on life satisfaction of patients with cancer. Method: This was a clinical trial as pre-test and post-test design. The data collection tool was a two-part questionnaire. In the first part, demographic characteristics and in the second part, life satisfaction was evaluated by The Diener Life Satisfaction Scale. Totally, 76 patients with cancer admitted to Urmia city hospital were chosen by purposive sampling and then randomly divided into two intervention and control groups. Patients in the control group received routine care hospitals, but those in the intervention group received 10 sessions of spiritual counseling. SPSS software was used for data analysis. To compare the life satisfaction scores before and after the treatment, paired t-test and independent t- test were used.  Results: The mean and standard deviation scores of life satisfaction of patients in the intervention group before and after the intervention were 18.92±3.33 and 23.66±2.77, respectively. Also in the control group, score of patients before and after the intervention were 19.53±2.88 and 19.55±2.78, respectively. Paired t-test showed that life satisfaction scores before and after the treatment only in the intervention group were significantly different (P<0.05). However, independent t- test showed that life satisfaction scores in patients with cancer between the intervention and control groups were significantly different after the intervention (P<0.05). Conclusion: Spiritual counseling was effective on life satisfaction of patients with cancer. Nurses should pay attention to patients’ spiritual needs and help them to benefit from supports in this area.