SPIRITUAL care (Medical care)

Context: Spiritual distress contributes to patients' and families' experiences of care. Objectives: To map the literature on how seriously ill patients and their family members experience spiritual distress within inpatient settings.

BACKGROUND: While providing physical, psychological, and spiritual care to their loved ones with cancer, family caregivers (FCGs) are physically and emotionally vulnerable to the tolls of caregiving. Patients and FCGs experience the uncertainty that comes with illness and treatment, its side effects, the lack of control, the emotional upheaval, the spiritual doubt, and the helplessness of advancing disease.