A study into the relation between spiritual goodness status, care burden and life quality of the individuals giving care to cancer patients taking palliative care

The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate the relation between spiritual goodness status, care burden and quality of life of the individuals giving care to cancer patients taking palliative care. The population of the study was made up of premiere care givers of cancer in-patients between the dates of 21.01.2020 and 14.04.2021 at the Medical Oncology-A and Palliative Care Servicesof Ankara City Hospital. A total sum of 135 individuals suitable for the inclusion criteria of the study, volunteering in the study, whose written and oral consents were taken, and giving care to cancer patients taking palliative care were included in the study. The data of the study was collected using "Introdution Form of Care Givers", "Introduction Form of Patient", "Care Giving Burden Scale", "Spiritual Well-Being Scale" and "SF-36 Quality of Life Scale". In the evaluation of the data showing normal distribution, t test, One-way ANOVA Analysis were used in the independent groups of parametric tests and of Post-Hoc tests Tukey HSD and Tamhane's. In the evaluation of the data not showing normal distribution, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis Variance test were used and to determine the significant difference source found between the groups as a result of the analysis, Bonferroni test, a Post-Hoc test statistic was used. In order to investigate the relation between data, Pearson and Spearman Correlation analysis and regression analysis was made. A statistically significant and negative relation was found between the Spiritual Well-Being Scale mean scores and Care Giving Burden Scale mean scores (p<0.05). A statistically significant and positive relation was found between the Spiritual Well-Being Scale mean scores and some subdimensions of SF-36 Quality of Life Scale mean scores (p<0.05). Depending on these results, it is recommended that nurses in the group health professionals should carry out evaluation and make supportive attempts to meet the spiritual needs of cancer patients taking palliative care as well as care givers, decrease their care burden and increase their life qualities.