Report on the Impact of Life-Limiting Illness and Spiritual Care

This report delves into the multifaceted impact of life-limiting illnesses on individuals, encompassing physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. It explores the psychological disturbances associated with chronic conditions, including fear, anxiety, and the impact on family relationships and social life. The report emphasizes the significance of spiritual needs in healthcare, as defined by the WHO, and the crucial role of nurses in assessing and providing spiritual care. It highlights the importance of person-centered care, spiritual assessment, and allowing patients to practice religious rituals. The report also discusses the cultural and religious considerations in palliative care, and stresses the need for nurses to offer empathetic support and advocate for their patients' holistic well-being, considering both their physical and spiritual needs. References from various research papers are included.

Module – 2
Thinking Point 2
Impact of life-time illness on an individual
Life-time illness can affect a person both physically and emotionally. Various factors
contribute the psychological disturbance in an individual are the fear of hospitalization,
economical burden, medical procedures, complications of illness and fear of death in some
cases. Emotional disturbances can reflect with identical signs and symptoms. An individual
suffering from emotional pain may show, fear, anxiety, anger, and irritable mood. Chronic
illness can impact the person affected and the family. The impact of life-limiting illness
differs based on age, culture and religion. A younger person with a life-limiting illness would
worry about the family and children. An older person with life-limiting illness worries about
pain and death. People from certain religious background believe that life-limiting illness is
caused due to the result of karma which may affect social life (Mazanec, & Panke, 2015).
Cultural impact on the life-limiting illness significantly affects the person. Common cultural
belief about life-limiting illness among the Australian population is speaking about the illness
and death can bring that soon. (Peterson et al. 2014 pp - 136-148).
Life-limiting illness significantly affects a person’s daily routine. The disease and the related
therapy may consume the time of the day. It can also affect the job of an individual. The
normal life span can be reduced by lifetime illness and related complications. Chronic illness
may need regular doctor visit and extra cost for the regular treatment. Physical illness can
cause mental illness like depression, stress disorder and anxiety disorder. Life limiting illness
can impact the family relationship and also the communication among the family members
(Golics et al. 2013 pp- 787–798). The general health of the person is significantly affected
and also impacts the sleep which may lead to further complications. Social life is drastically

disturbed due to chronic illness and increases the financial burden as the age increases. The
regular holiday or vacation planning is affected by life-limiting illnesses.
Understanding spiritual needs
Thinking point 1
a) Spirituality is the belief of omnipotent power which is superior to oneself. Most of the
global population believes in spirituality. Sense of spirituality benefits humans in many ways.
Spirituality ensures the feeling of a positive relationship with the omnipresent and omnipotent
God which can encourage an individual to pursue a new plan in life. It also improves the
confidence of an individual. Spirituality is believed to be the guide for life and helps an
individual to realize the purpose of life. Spirituality encourages a person to be compassionate
and improves the quality of emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing of an individual.
Spirituality helps the person to balance the emotional issues of life and promote the spiritual
belief of an individual, family and society.
b) The nurses are the front line health care professional who works closely with the in-
patients. The nurse needs to understand the physical and emotional changes caused by the
lifetime illness. The nurse has to ensure person-centred nursing care for the patient and
family as the family is also significantly affected by the chronic illness of the patient (Katz, &
Johnson, 2016). Major psychological issues of an individual with chronic illness are fear,
anxiety and depression. The nurse has to educate the patient about the disease condition and
related lifestyle modification. The nurse has to provide psychological and spiritual support
for the patient. The nurse must acquire an emphatical approach in the process of counselling
the patient. The nurse has to possess the quality of advocacy when the patient undergoes a
process of chronic illness.
Thinking point 2
a) Assess spiritual issues

According to the recommendation of WHO, the nurses are to ensure the physical, mental,
social and spiritual wellbeing of an individual. Spiritual support is the basic need of the
person with the life-limiting illness. The nurse has to talk to the person and assess the
spiritual needs of the person (Pearce et al.2012 pp- 2269-2276). The spiritual assessment
helps the nurse to identify the spiritual beliefs and application in routine life. The nurse has to
respect the spiritual belief of the person and ensure spiritual safety. The nurses are not
supposed to impose the specific spiritual belief into the patient which may negatively impact
the health of the patient (Moghimian, Irajpour, & Arzani, 2019 pp-34-39) generally; the
person diagnosed with life-limiting illness suffers various problems related to spirituality
which includes unacceptance, guilty feeling and feeling of abandoned. (It is not the reflection
but the nurse has to present what spirituality means to her)
b) Spiritual care
Spiritual care is the essential need of the person with the life-limiting illness. The health care
professionals are responsible for providing quality spiritual care for the patient suffering from
a life-limiting illness. Person-centred care aids in finding the spiritual needs of the suffering
person. Appropriate spiritual support can improve the quality of life. Allow the relatives and
friends who are close to the heart of the patient. The nurse has to let the patient and relative to
perform religious rituals and prayers as part of spiritual care for the patient (Keall, Clayton, &
Butow, 2014 pp- 3197-3205). The health care professionals involved in patient care has to
encourage the patient to do simple spiritual exercises which include the pastoral care and
reading the holy book of his/her own belief. The nurse needs to encourage the patient to pray
as an individual or family to improve the self –esteem and emotional stability (Richardson,
2014).

References
Golics, C. J., Basra, M. K., Salek, M. S., & Finlay, A. Y. (2013). The impact of patients'
chronic disease on family quality of life: an experience from 26
specialities. International journal of general medicine, 6, 787–798.
https://doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S45156
Katz, R. S., & Johnson, T. A. (Eds.). (2016). When professionals weep: Emotional and
countertransference responses in palliative and end-of-life care. Routledge
https://books.google.co.in/books?
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f+the+nurse+for+lifetime+illness&ots=wrOPCrPRlG&sig=cZ8Kxs3ez6sSeoVTsVnK
CQzv26g&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Keall, R., Clayton, J. M., & Butow, P. (2014). How do Australian palliative care nurses
address existential and spiritual concerns? Facilitators, barriers and strategies. Journal
of clinical nursing, 23(21-22), 3197-3205
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jocn.12566
Moghimian, M., Irajpour, A., & Arzani, H. (2019). The inter-professional dimensions of
spiritual care for chronically ill patients: A qualitative study. Nursing and Midwifery
Studies, 8(1), 34-39 http://www.nmsjournal.com/article.asp?issn=2322-
1488;year=2019;volume=8;issue=1;spage=34;epage=39;aulast=Moghimian
Mazanec, P., & Panke, J. T. (2015). Cultural considerations in palliative care. Spiritual,
Religious, and Cultural Aspects of Care, 4 https://books.google.co.in/books?
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m5VgCnr7J7MNQlLmc0ZSz-s#v=onepage&q=).%20Cultural%20and%20religious
%20aspects%20of%20palliative%20care&f=false
Peterson, B. S., Wang, Z., Horga, G., Warner, V., Rutherford, B., Klahr, K. W., ... & Hao, X.
(2014). Discriminating risk and resilience endophenotypes from lifetime illness
effects in familial major depressive disorder. JAMA Psychiatry, 71(2), 136-148
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abstract/1792143
Pearce, M. J., Coan, A. D., Herndon, J. E., Koenig, H. G., & Abernethy, A. P. (2012). Unmet
spiritual care needs impact emotional and spiritual well-being in advanced cancer
patients. Supportive Care in Cancer, 20(10), 2269-2276
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00520-011-1335-1
Richardson, P. (2014). Spirituality, religion and palliative care. Ann Palliat Med, 3(3), 150-9
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Spirituality%2C-religion-and-palliative-care.-
Richardson/621ce6657e1100f40801d96e5505ad7f1d6be742