Determining the spiritual well-being and supportive care needs of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer

Individuals diagnosed with breast cancer may feel lonely, deprived of purpose and meaning in the face of the problems they experience during the disease process, and their spiritual needs may come to the fore. Supportive care needs of patients may increase during the breast cancer treatment process. This research was conducted to determine the spiritual well-being and supportive care needs of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer. The research is descriptive and correlational, and its sample consisted of 148 breast cancer patients who received inpatient or outpatient cancer treatment between October 2022 and January 2023 at the Medical Oncology Clinic of Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Medicine in Konya. Introductory Information Form generated by the researcher, Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12) and Supportive Care Needs Scale (DeBGÖ-SF 29Tr) were used to collect data. To test the difference between the two groups, the T test was used in independent groups for normally distributed data, and the Mann Whitney U test was used for data that did not provide a normal distribution. In order to test the distinction between more than two groups, One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for data with a normal distribution, and the Kruskall Wallis test was used for data that did not show a normal distribution. Tukey test was used for data showing a normal distribution in further analyses to determine the significant difference. In the correlation analysis in which the scale scores were compared, Pearson Correlation analysis was used for normally distributed data, and Spearman Correlation analysis was used for data that did not show normal distribution. The significance level was determined as p<0.05. In this research, the mean score of the individuals diagnosed with breast cancer was found to be 37.50±7.08 on the moral well-being scale, and 62,75±15,67 on the supportive care needs scale. A statistically significant difference was found between working status and the need for supportive care during the disease process and spiritual well-being (p<0,05). It was determined that there is a negative and weak significant relationship between the level of the spiritual well-being of patients with breast cancer and their supportive care needs (r=-0,415). In conclusion, it was found that individuals with breast cancer have good spiritual well-being and low supportive care needs. As the level of spiritual well-being of individuals increases, their supportive care needs decrease. It is recommended to determine the spiritual needs of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer, to provide their spiritual care and to increase their spiritual well-being. Keywords: Breast cancer, Cancer, Spiritual well-being, Supportive care needs.