Background: Although religion and spirituality are important to adults with cancer and their family caregivers, few studies have tested spiritual care interventions in the outpatient setting.
Aim: To determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of chaplain-delivered, semi-structured spiritual care to adult outpatients with advanced cancer and their caregivers.
Design: In this pre/post pilot intervention study, board-certified chaplains utilized the Spiritual Care Assessment and Intervention (SCAI) framework during 4 individual sessions. Surveys at baseline and at 1, 6, and 12 weeks post-intervention assessed spiritual well-being, quality of life, depression, anxiety, and religious coping.
Setting/participants: We enrolled U.S. adult outpatients with or without an eligible family caregiver. Eligible patients were at least 18 years old and at least 2 weeks post-diagnosis of incurable and advanced-stage lung or gastrointestinal (GI) cancer.
Results: Of 82 eligible patients, 24 enrolled (29.3%); of 22 eligible caregivers, 18 enrolled (81.8%). Four planned chaplain visits were completed by 87.5% of patients and 77.8% of caregivers. All enrolled participants completed baseline surveys, and more than 75% completed follow-up surveys at 2 of 3 time points. More than 80% of patients and caregivers reported they would recommend the sessions to a friend or family member. Patients' spiritual well-being improved significantly at all timepoints compared to baseline: 1-week post (p < .006), 6-weeks post (p < .001), and 12-weeks post (p < .004).
Conclusions: Spiritual care through SCAI is feasible, acceptable, and shows promise in improving spiritual well-being and other important outcomes in advanced-stage cancer patients and family caregivers. Further investigation is warranted.
Keywords: advanced cancer; caregivers; chaplain; oncology; outpatients; quality of life; religion; spirituality.