The spiritual experiences of patients with diabetes-related limb amputation

Abstract

• Background: Confrontation with the consequences of diabetes causes a crisis in physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions. Sometimes the spiritual crisis can be tremendous. Since spiritual health coordinates different aspects of human life, this study aimed to identify the spiritual health of patients with defects caused by diabetes.
• Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative-phenomenological and descriptive study and the participants were selected from rehabilitation centers in Isfahan and Valiasr Hospital in Zanjan. A purposive sample of 15 participants underwent deep interviews. Colaizzi’s method of analysis was used to analyze the data.
• Findings: outcome of this phase of the study was 173 codes and 2 groups that included hindering factors in spiritual health and the promotion of the relation with God. The concepts that patients had experienced as hindering factors of the treatment process were disappointment and hopelessness, guilt, feeling distant from God, quitting obligatory acts and knowing God as cruel. The concepts that patients had experienced as contributing factors to the healing process were resorting to Imams, God’s ordering the disease as a reward, fear of God’s punishment, believing in miracles, being closer to God, believing in the mercy of God, returning to religious practice, feeling of enjoying life and knowing that the disease is the atonement of sins.
• Conclusions: With regard to the importance of spiritual and religious care as one of the tasks of nurses, as the key members of health team, they should respect the patients’ beliefs and values in addition to considering their physical and mental conditions.
•  Key words: Spiritual experiences, organ amputations, diabetes