Benefícios da espiritualidade/religiosidade nos cuidados paliativos: revisão integrativa

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative care is a fundamental part of health services. Alleviating suffering, whether physical, psychological, social or spiritual, is a global ethical responsibility. Palliative care can be provided in any context in which a patient with a serious, progressive disease that threatens the continuity of his or her life finds himself or herself, whether at home or in a specialized health unit. Given the suffering experienced by people due to chronic disease, the multidisciplinary team must identify and meet the various needs of patients and family members, including spirituality. During the process of illness, patients tend to seek the meaning of life and find hope in their faith, which helps them cope with illness and terminal illness. In order to provide spiritual assistance that is appropriate to the patient's needs, it is essential that the professionals involved in this care understand what spirituality is. Objective: To analyze scientific articles published in journals through a literature review on the benefits of spirituality in palliative care. Methodology: Integrative literature review, with data collection in February and March 2023 in the Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and Public Medline (PubMed) databases. The guiding question was developed to direct the search for articles, and the PVO strategy was used as support. Therefore, the guiding question was: “What are the benefits of spirituality in palliative care?” Publications published between 2013 and 2021, available in full and free of charge, in Portuguese, English, or Spanish, were included. Duplicate publications in one or more databases and publications in event proceedings (simple and expanded abstracts) were excluded from the search. All information was arranged in an Excel 2010 spreadsheet. Results: This review consisted of 11 articles. It was observed, through analysis of the included articles, that spirituality and religiosity are important mechanisms for coping with the finitude of life in patients undergoing palliative care. The reviewed articles reported that spirituality helps to provide hope, comfort and find meaning in death, in addition to allowing acceptance of the illness process and offering a broader and deeper view of life and death. The spiritual dimension is important even for those who do not have a religious affiliation, as it allows patients to overcome the obstacle of illness through spirituality and faith, which are seen as possibilities for achieving this overcoming. Final considerations: This study confirms the importance of spirituality/religiosity in the palliative care process, as it provides an improvement in the quality of life and psychological support for patients at the end of their lives.