Spiritual care is at the center of hospice and palliative care. Patients facing serious and life-threatening illness have important needs in regard to faith, hope, and existential concerns. The purpose of this article is to review the key aspects of this care, including the definitions of spirituality, spiritual assessment, and spiritual care interventions. A review of the current literature was conducted to identify content related to spiritual care in hospice and palliative care. A growing body of evidence supports the importance of spiritual care as a key domain of quality palliative care. The literature supports the importance of spiritual assessment as a key aspect of comprehensive patient and family assessment. Spirituality encompasses religious concerns as well as other existential issues. Future research and clinical practice should test models of best support to provide spiritual care.
Existentialism ; Hope ; Hospice Care ; Hospices* ; Humans ; Needs Assessment ; Palliative Care* ; Spirituality

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to validate the Korean version of the Quality of Life–Cancer Survivors (QOL-CS-K) in a sample of lymphoma survivors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of lymphoma survivors who had survived for at least 24 months since diagnosis. Participants were recruited at the outpatient clinics and at a hospital event in a tertiary hospital in Seoul, Korea. Survivors were asked to complete the QOL-CS-K and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) questionnaires. To determine test-retest reliability, a second questionnaire was sent to participants who completed the first questionnaire adequately. Exploratory factor analysis and Pearson’s correlations were used for evaluating reliability and validity of the QOL-CS-K. RESULTS: Among 257 survivors, 245 (95.3%) completed all questionnaires and had no missing data. The mean age of study participants was 52.2 years, 54.9% were men, and the mean time since diagnosis was 4.0±1.6 years. The Cronbach’s α for the overall QOL-CS-K was 0.90, and the α coefficients for each subscale ranged from 0.73 to 0.83. The test and retest reliability was 0.88. Moderate correlations were found between comparable subscales of the QOL-CS-K and subscales of the EORTC QLQ-C30 (r=0.51-0.55) except for the spiritual well-being subscale of the QOL-CS-K, which did not correlate with any of the EORTC QLQ-C30 subscales (–0.08 to 0.16). CONCLUSION: The QOL-CS-K is a reliable and valid scale for measuring the QOL in long-term lymphoma survivors.
Ambulatory Care Facilities ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Diagnosis ; Humans ; Korea ; Lymphoma ; Male ; Quality of Life ; Reproducibility of Results ; Seoul ; Survivors ; Tertiary Care Centers