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Lee and Kwak: Experience of Spiritual Conflict in Hospice Nurses: A Phenomenological Study
Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing 2017; 47(1): 98-109.

Published online: 28 February 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2017.47.1.98

Experience of Spiritual Conflict in Hospice Nurses: A Phenomenological Study

Byoung Sook Lee1, Su Young Kwak2

1College of Nursing, Keimyung University, Daegu, Korea.

2Department of Nursing, Keimyung College University, Daegu, Korea.

Address reprint requests to: Lee, Byoung Sook. College of Nursing, Keimyung University, 1095 Dalgubuldaero, Dalseo-gu, Daegu 42601, Korea. Tel: +82-53-580-3908, Fax: +82-53-580-3916, lbs@kmu.ac.kr

Received 25 April 2016       Revised 18 August 2016       Accepted 2 December 2016

© 2017 Korean Society of Nursing Science

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/) If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium.

Abstract

Purpose

This aim of this phenomenological study was to describe and understand the experience of spiritual conflict in hospice nurses by identifying the meanings and structures of the experience.

Methods

Participants were 12 nurses working for one year or more at hospice units of general hospitals in a metropolitan city and experiencing of spiritual conflict as hospice nurses. Over six months data were collected using individual in-depth interviews and analyzed with the method suggested by Colaizzi.

Results

The experience of spiritual conflict in participants was organized into three categories, six theme-clusters, and 13 themes. The participants felt existential anxiety on death and a fear of death which is out of human control and skepticism for real facts of human beings facing death. They also experienced agitation of fundamental beliefs about life with agitation of the philosophy of life guiding themselves and mental distress due to fundamental questions that are difficult to answer. Also they had distress about poor spiritual care with guilty feelings from neglecting patients' spiritual needs and difficulties in spiritual care due to lack of practical competencies.

Conclusion

Findings indicate the experience of spiritual conflict in hospice nurses is mainly associated with frequent experience of death in hospice patients. The experience of spiritual conflict consisted of existential anxiety, agitation of fundamental beliefs and distress over poor spiritual care. So, programs to help relieve anxiety, agitation and distress are necessary to prevent spiritual conflict and then spiritual burnout in hospice nurses.

Keywords: Hospices, Nurse, Conflict, Qualitative research

Figures and Tables

Table 1

Experience of Spiritual Conflict as Hospice Nurses according to the Study Participants

jkan-47-98-i001
Categories Theme clusters Themes
Existential anxiety about death Fear of death which is out of human control Fear of death due to absolute ignorance about it
Fear of occurring irreversible loss caused by death to oneself
Skepticism of real facts of human beings facing death Compassion for human beings collapsing when facing death
Feeling futility of life due to the difference of image between the lives lived in the past and the end stage
Agitation of fundamental beliefs of life Agitation of philosophy of life guiding oneself Doubt about the philosophy of life meaningful to oneself
Reflection about the way and attitude of life in the past
Mental distress due to fundamental questions difficult to be answered Fundamental questions about life and death remained unresolved in mind
Surge of unsolved questions about the absolute values and entities
Distress about poor spiritual care Guilty feeling on neglecting of patients’ spiritual needs Difficulties in assessing patients’ spiritual needs due to lack of spiritual sensitivity
Neglect and evasion of patients’ spiritual needs
Guilty feeling for neglecting spiritual care
Difficulties in spiritual care due to lack of practical competencies Sense of shame because of the lack of knowledge of spiritual care
Fear about rejection of spiritual care and feeling of shrinkage because of the rejection

Notes

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors declared no conflict of interest.

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