Abstract
Spiritual issues surface as people face death. Spiritual care is the core of care for the dying. Nurses are mandated to provide spiritual care, yet little is known about the impact of spirituality on the ability to cope at the end of life. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine relationships between spirituality and coping at end of life. Adults (n = 60) enrolled in hospice between ages 30 and 90 completed the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-being Scale, the Serenity Scale, and the Cognitive Coping Scale as measures of coping. Overall physical health, the importance of religion or God, level of comfort, and level of peacefulness were measured on analogue scales of 1 to 10. Significant correlations (P < .01) were found between spirituality and importance of religion (r = .573), serenity (r = .556), peacefulness (r = .540), comfort (r = .399), and cognitive coping (r = .333). Significant correlations with the meaning/peace subscale were peacefulness (r = .534), serenity (r = .462), and comfort (r = .359). The faith/religion subscale correlations were importance of religion (r = .682), peacefulness (r = .423), cognitive coping (r = .410), serenity (r = .408), and comfort (r = .353). Linear regression indicated that spirituality is a predictor of peacefulness (r2 =.279) at end of life. Seventy-three percent of patients reported that illness had strengthened their spiritual lives and increased religious practices, yet most reported low levels of comfort and peace. Implications for practice are that interventions must focus on broader spiritual issues by finding ways to achieve peacefulness and comfort and assist in finding meaning as death approaches.