Feeling what life means during advanced disease: development of a tool to guide the psychosocial and spiritual assistance for patient and family

  • Virginia Carrero Planes Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva, Educativa, Social y Metodología de la Universitat Jaume I, de Castellón
  • Hilda Camacho López Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva, Educativa, Social y Metodología de la Universitat Jaume I, de Castellón
  • María Serrano Font Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva, Educativa, Social y Metodología de la Universitat Jaume I, de Castellón
  • Jesús Arrué Área Médica Integral Hospital Pare Jofré. Valencia. Consellería de Sanidad
  • Francisco Hidalgo Área Médica Integral Hospital Pare Jofré. Valencia. Consellería de Sanidad
  • Manuela Hernández Área Médica Integral Hospital Pare Jofré. Valencia. Consellería de Sanidad
  • Pilar Sabio Área Médica Integral Hospital Pare Jofré. Valencia. Consellería de Sanidad
  • Ramón Navarro Sanz Área Médica Integral Hospital Pare Jofré. Valencia. Consellería de Sanidad
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_PSIC.2015.v12.n2-3.51013
Keywords: Meaning of life, palliative care, existential and spiritual needs, re-signification, healing connections, existential suffering, demoralization syndrome, pathological bereavement.

Abstract

Objective. The development of a tool to guide the psychosocial and spiritual attention for patients and their families in advanced disease (AD) at the end of life (EoL). To analyze the tool’s content from some preliminary results.

Method. The initial tool design has been done starting from the results obtained in the framework of advance care planning research at the end of life (*). The tool has been implemented under supervision of the health team personnel previously trained in the use of the tool. The quantitative analysis was performed using the exploratory factorial analysis technique. The qualitative analysis of free association words has been conducted following the principles of constant comparative method based on Grounded theory methodology(1). Sample. A total of 115 cases (patients and main caregivers) in situation of AD at EoL were selected from health assistant resources, 65 out of which were patients/residents and 47 relatives. All cases fulfill the condition of having functional competence towards the understanding and the answer to the tool.

Results. The tool consists of 17 items. Sixteen of them have a Likert-type scale response and one has a “free association words” format response. The exploratory content analysis allows us to identify four dimensions in the meaning of the AD at EoL: “Significant Meeting, Redemption, Resilience and Resignification”.

Conclusions. Four areas of psychosocial/spiritual intervention are proposed in order to detect existential-meaning sources during the AD. Practical implications for preventing exis­tential suffering, demoralization syndrome and pathological bereavement at the EoL are.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article download

Crossmark

Metrics

Published
2015-11-11
How to Cite
Carrero Planes V., Camacho López H., Serrano Font M., Arrué J., Hidalgo F., Hernández M., Sabio P. y Navarro Sanz R. (2015). Feeling what life means during advanced disease: development of a tool to guide the psychosocial and spiritual assistance for patient and family. Psicooncología, 12(2-3), 335-354. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_PSIC.2015.v12.n2-3.51013
Issue
Vol. 12 No. 2-3 (2015)
Section
Articles

License

In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Psicooncología is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.