Until the last 2 decades, spiritual care was a vital, but
invisible, aspect of nursing care. Spirituality and spiritual
care have entered the mainstream, and the literature in
this area has burgeoned. In addition, there is minimal
information in the literature documenting the expressed
spiritual needs of patients in general and specific subgroups
of patients in particular, thus this article aimed to
present spiritual needs of Iranian Muslim patients. Therefore,
this study is of significance to nursing in general and
to transcultural nursing in particular because of the high
priority associated with increasing the nursing knowledge
through research that investigates and describes care practices
in diverse cultures.
This paper reports an investigation into the spiritual needs
of hospitalized Iranian Muslim patients.
Materials and methods
Qualitative study with a sample of 24 patients using semistructured
interviews. The sample selected from three different
cities of Iran
Results
Although not clearly distinguishable, we found two main
spiritual needs include religious and existential needs in
Iranian Muslim patients.
Conclusions
With regard to holistic approach in Islamic philosophy,
holism is a relevant concept in the care of Iranian patients
