• Keiko Tamura, Kaori Ichihara, Eiko Maetaki, Keiko Takayama, Kumi Tanisawa, and Masayuki Ikenaga.
• Department of Medical Ethics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan. a287027@ych.or.jp
• Palliat Support Care. 2006 Jun 1; 4 (2): 179-88.

ObjectiveThis research explores the potential benefit of a spiritual pain assessment sheet to clinical practice. With spiritual pain defined as "pain caused by extinction of the being and meaning of the self," the spiritual pain assessment sheet was developed by Hisayuki Murata from his conceptual framework reflecting the three dimensions of a human being as a being founded on temporality, a being in relationship, and a being with autonomy. The assessment sheet was developed from reviews of the literature and examinations from a philosophical perspective on the structure of spiritual pain.MethodsPatients admitted to palliative care units in Japan were interviewed using the assessment sheet. The responses were analyzed qualitatively. The usefulness of the assessment sheet and the burden placed on the patients by its use were also investigated.ResultsThe spiritual pain elucidated by the assessment sheet was the same as that revealed in the earlier research of Morita. The patients reported that they did not find the use of the assessment sheet a burden, and more than half reported that it was useful. The burden of the assessment sheet on the subjects was thus determined to be low. Positive feedback on the assessment sheet was also received from the nurses who conducted the patient interviews, who said the assessment sheet made it easier to talk with the patients about their spiritual pain.Significance Of ResearchThe research results indicate that the spiritual pain assessment sheet provided an appropriate assessment of spiritual pain among terminal cancer patients, showing that such a sheet could be used as an assessment tool in the future.

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