Studying of the effect spiritual counseling applications on anxiety and quality of life in cancer patients

The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of spiritual support practices on patients' religious attitudes, religious coping, state-trait anxiety, and quality of life in cancer patients). For this purpose, a "spiritual support program" has been developed and implemented for cancer patients in the context of the research. In this study, which was carried out in three stages, the embedded design was used as a mixed-method research design. The study sample consisted of female patients who received outpatient treatment with the diagnosis of breast cancer in Bursa Ali Osman Sönmez Oncology Hospital. Data from 150 patients in the first stage of the study conducted with a quantitative approach, 13 patients in the second stage carried out with a qualitative approach, and In the third stage where the pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design was used, data were collected from a total of 14 patients assigned to the intervention (n=7) and control (n=7) groups. To collect quantitative data, personal information form, Ok-Religious Attitude Scale, the Religious Coping Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI and STAI-II), and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ-C30) questionnaire was used. In addition, blood pressure and heart rate were measured. A semi-structured interview method was used to collect qualitative data. The qualitative data obtained in the study were subjected to descriptive and content analysis using the MAXQDA 20 program. SPSS 18.0 program was used in the analysis of quantitative data. The results of the pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test regarding the "spiritual support program" in the research; revealed significant findings indicating higher religious attitudes and positive religious coping, a better quality of life, lower anxiety, and negative religious coping levels in favor of the treatment group. As a result, in the context of this study, it was determined that "spiritual support" practices positively affect the spiritual, psychological, and physical well-being of cancer patients.