Translation and Validation of the City Birth Trauma Scale With Lithuanian Postpartum Women: Findings and Initial Results

The childbirth experience and birth-related trauma are influenced by various factors, including country, healthcare system, a woman’s history of traumatic experiences, and the study’s design and instruments. This study aimed to validate the City Birth Trauma scale for Lithuanian women post-childbirth. Using a descriptive, cross-sectional survey with a nonprobability sample of 794 women who gave birth from 2020–2021, the study found good validity, reliability, and presented the prevalence of birth-related stress symptoms. A bifactor model, consisting of a general birth trauma factor and two specific factors for birth-related symptoms and general symptoms of PTSD, showed the best model fit. The Lithuanian version of the City Birth Trauma scale can be effectively used in research and clinical practice to identify birth-related trauma symptoms in women after giving birth

Dvasingumo reikšmė nepagydomos ligos atveju: gydytojų ir slaugytojų pagalba

Šiandieninė sveikatos priežiūros sistema, taip pat ir slauga, kaip labai reikšminga ir didelė jos dalis, patiria daugybę iššūkių. Medikalizacija, užėmusi redukcionistinę biomedicininę poziciją ir tęsusi R. Dekarto kūno kaip mechanizmo atskyrimo nuo dvasinės substancijos tradiciją, patiria pokyčius. Sveikatos priežiūros sistema keičia kryptį, orientuodamasi į pacientą kaip asmenį, iš redukcionistinės į holistinę. Nebeužtenka gydyti, slaugyti tik kūną. Dėl šio pokyčio reikšminga tampa dvasingumo dimensija, kurią užčiuopia, ja rūpinasi ir medicinos profesionalai – gydytojai bei slaugytojai.Šiandieninė sveikatos priežiūros sistema, taip pat ir slauga, kaip labai reikšminga ir didelė jos dalis, patiria daugybę iššūkių. Medikalizacija, užėmusi redukcionistinę biomedicininę poziciją ir tęsusi R. Dekarto kūno kaip mechanizmo atskyrimo nuo dvasinės substancijos tradiciją, patiria pokyčius. Sveikatos priežiūros sistema keičia kryptį, orientuodamasi į pacientą kaip asmenį, iš redukcionistinės į holistinę. Nebeužtenka gydyti, slaugyti tik kūną. Dėl šio pokyčio reikšminga tampa dvasingumo dimensija, kurią užčiuopia, ja rūpinasi ir medicinos profesionalai – gydytojai bei slaugytojai

Spirituality in facing cancer: analysis of patients’ spiritual needs

Šiame straipsnyje analizuojami dvasiniai onkologinėmis ligomis sergančių asmenų poreikiai. Dvasiniai poreikiai yra svarbūs teikiant sveikatos priežiūros paslaugas, tačiau praktikoje trūksta žinių ir patirties šiems poreikiams analizuoti ir vertinti. Tyrimo rezultatai atskleidė, kad dažniausi onkologinėmis ligomis sergančių asmenų dvasinius poreikius apibūdinantys teiginiai, išreikšti kaip stiprūs arba labai stiprūs poreikiai, buvo: būti visiškai sveiku ir saugiai jaustis, jausti ryšį su savo šeima, palaikyti artimesnį ryšį su šeima dalyvaujant jos gyvenime ir priimant sprendimus, pabūti ramioje ir tylioje vietoje ir sulaukti daugiau paramos iš savo šeimos. Dvasiniai poreikiai sunkiai sprendžiami dėl individualaus, dažnai asmeniško ir privataus jų pobūdžio, specialistų negebėjimo juos atpažinti, o net ir atpažinus – laiku ir adekvačiai patenkinti.This article analyses the spiritual needs of oncological patients. Spiritual needs are important in providing health care services for cancer patients; however, there is a lack of knowledge and experience in this area. Study results revealed that spiritual needs such as to be healthy and feel safe, to feel connected with a family, to be involved by family members in their life concerns, to dwell at a place of quietness and peace and to receive more support from the family were expressed as very or extremely important needs for majority of cancer patients while in hospital. Spiritual needs of individuals are difficult to assess due individual and impersonate and private nature. Health care specialists not always are competent to recognize those needs, and even when spiritual needs are identified it is difficult to satisfy them in a proper and timely manner

Translation, cultural, and clinical validation of the Lithuanian version of the spiritual needs questionnaire among hospitalized cancer patients

Background and Objectives: The aim was to translate and validate the spiritual needs questionnaire for its use in the Lithuanian context. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, crosssectional survey design was applied. Structural individual interview method (face-to-face) was employed to collect data on spiritual needs of cancer patients. Responses were obtained from 247 patients hospitalized in nursing and supportive treatment units at public hospitals. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics) version 22.0. To assess the psychometric properties of the scale, Cronbach’s alpha, split half test, average inter-item, and item-total correlations were calculated for internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis was used to confirm the construct validity of the translated version of instrument. Results: Lithuanian version of The Spiritual Needs Questionnaire (27 items) had a good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94). The existential and connectedness with family needs factor had the lowest Cronbach’s alpha (0.71) in relation to other factors: Religious needs (0.93), giving/generativity and forgiveness needs (0.88), and inner peace needs (0.74). Split-half test showed strong relationship between the both halves of the test. The item difficulty (1.47 (mean value)/3) was 0.49; while all values were in acceptable range from 0.20 to 0.80. Item-total correlations were inspected for the items in each of the four SpNQ-27 factors. Conclusions: The Lithuanian version of Spiritual needs questionnaire demonstrated adequate psychometric properties of the instrument. This instrument, as a screening tool and conversational model, is recommended for clinicians in health care practice to identify patients with spiritual needs

Determination of death: Metaphysical and biomedical discourse

The prominence of biomedical criteria relying on brain death reduces the impact of metaphysical, anthropological, psychosocial, cultural, religious, and legal aspects disclosing the real value and essence of human life. The aim of this literature review is to discuss metaphysical and biomedical approaches toward death and their complimentary relationship in the determination of death. A critical appraisal of theoretical and scientific evidence and legal documents supported analytical discourse. In the metaphysical discourse of death, two main questions about what human death is and how to determine the fact of death clearly separate the ontological and epistemological aspects of death. During the 20th century, various understandings of human death distinguished two different approaches toward the human: the human is a subject of activities or a subject of the human being. Extinction of the difference between the entities and the being, emphasized as rational– logical instrumentation, is not sufficient to understand death thoroughly. Biological criteria of death are associated with biological features and irreversible loss of certain cognitive capabilities. Debating on the question ‘‘Does a brain death mean death of a human being?’’ two approaches are considering: the body-centrist and the mind-centrist. By bridging those two alternatives human death appears not only as biomedical, but also as metaphysical phenomenon. It was summarized that a predominance of clinical criteria for determination of death in practice leads to medicalization of death and limits the holistic perspective toward individual\u27s death. Therefore, the balance of metaphysical and biomedical approaches toward death and its determination would decrease the medicalization of the concept of death

Perceptions of clergy regarding the provision of spiritual care in Lithuanian Hospitals for cancer patients

This paper presents an analysis of narratives drawn from research that examined the views of clergy in regard to the provision of spiritual care in Lithuanian hospitals. The purpose of this research was to examine the shared responsibilities between what nurses do in the provision of holistic care and that of the clergy who are employed to provide spiritual care. A thematic analysis was undertaken, guided by questions related to how spirituality was perceived by the clergy; how spiritual care was defined; clergy’s perceptions to nurses’ provision of spiritual care, and whether there was a delineation between these two roles. Findings showed that although the clergy believed that their role was important in the provision of spiritual care, both nurses and clergy acknowledged that both played a role in spiritual support. However, scope of practice for each role was not yet defined. For nurses and clergy to understand their roles and the boundaries between them, clear standards of practice need to be developed