IAHPC Literature Search: Issue No. 30 July 2026

PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE | Online – 26 April 2026 – The authors highlight the importance of early integration of dynamic and multidimensional spiritual care (SC) for people with neuro-oncological or neurodegenerative diseases. The implementation of SC in this context should address the unique challenges that arise with these diseases, such as changes in spiritual needs and in the ability to communicate spiritual needs across disease progression. SC should be carried out by the whole care team, offering regular spiritual screenings and referring care to specialists when needed. SC should be culturally safe, offering multilingual access, and multi-faith chaplaincy services. SC is not a luxury or an optional extra; it is a fundamental aspect of palliative care. There is a need to implement SC across all stages of care, taking into consideration the patient’s evolving needs. Sufficient time should be allocated to SC education for social and healthcare professionals By embedding SC into clinical systems and educational models... Full text

JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE | Online – 4 June 2026 – Physician burnout and patients’ distrust of healthcare are emergent, concomitant issues that negatively impact the well-being of both parties. Widespread reports of burnout have been similarly observed in nursing and allied health disciplines. Given such high rates of burnout, patients are more likely to face aloof and de-humanizing encounters in healthcare that can spur distrust in the system. Both issues are multi-faceted and partially rooted in disconnection, calling for a solution that involves cultivating deeper, more meaningful healing connections. “Sacred moments” represent a bulwark against these issues… [They] are a marker of strong humanistic connection, perhaps addressing the yearning for holistic and compassionate care in clinicians and patients alike, in which people are seen more fully as spiritual as well as biological, psychological, and... Full text

N.B. The EAPC white paper offers practical recommendations, e.g., spiritual care “toolbox” for neuro-oncology sighted in ‘Exploring spirituality in everyday neuro-oncology practice – nurses’ and physicians’ spiritual care toolbox,’ Neuro-Oncology Practice , 2025;12(3):520-530. Full text

JOURNAL OF ADVANCE NURSING | Online – 18 September 2025 – Imbedding spiritual care (SC) education into both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing curricula is essential to prepare nurses to address the spiritual needs of patients in healthcare settings. Structured curricula that provide clear instructions on how to recognise, assess, and respond to spiritual concerns in clinical practice can enhance nurses’ competence and confidence. Embedding SC into education and training helps normalise SC as a component of holistic nursing, supporting its inclusion in everyday care rather than treating it as an optional or marginal practice. Such educational integration has the potential to improve the consistency and quality of SC across healthcare settings. Internationally there are evident gaps in the consistent provision of SC to patients and their families. These are being addressed through conceptual clarity, the agreed-upon competencies, and enhanced educational initiatives. It is essential to continue to increase awareness among the nursing profession on the necessity of addressing SC needs, within the context of cultural perspectives to ensure that value is placed on the significance of these issues on a global scale. Full text

FRONTIERS IN SOCIOLOGY | Online – 20 July 2025 – This conceptual analysis presents various models and suggestions for implementing spiritual care (SC) in palliative and end-of-life (EoL) scenarios, raising essential questions about how to review and enhance care for this vital aspect of the human experience of illness and dying. The models from international experiences places spirituality at the center as a guiding element in the clinical path, supporting, however, the rigorous and evidence-based background of traditional medicine, which is neither denied nor marginalized, but on the contrary, it becomes “embedded” within a holistic and patient-centered approach. Thus, spirituality should be considered alongside other dimensions included in the care plan, such as pain management, nutrition, symptom relief, and overall comfort. Enhancing SC at the EoL requires providing training and support for staff, which not only benefits patients but also empowers staff to offer improved support. Full text

BMC PALLIATIVE CARE | Online – 7 July 2025 – Evidence supports the classification of spiritual well-being as a determinant of health. However, clinicians continue to disregard patients’ spiritual needs, in part due to discomfort discussing the topic and lack of consolidated evidence regarding the effectiveness of utilizing spiritual history/assessment tools designed to facilitate these conversations. This is the first systematically constructed review of any of the well-known spiritual history/assessment tools created for non-specialists in spiritual care. This scoping review revealed that in the 24 years since its first publication, the HOPE model for spiritual assessment has garnered widespread interest, spanning numerous countries, languages, and disciplines. The authors found 63 sources that described specific uses and/or evaluations of HOPE, including 31 studies demonstrating HOPE’s content validity and/or validity as a clinical, educational or qualitative research tool. However, studies are heterogeneous, providing opportunities for further research. Full text

CURRENT OPINION IN SUPPORTIVE & PALLIATIVE CARE , 2025;19(4):242-247. Spiritual and cultural factors shape end-of-life (EoL) decision-making in the Arab Middle East and the U.K. Arab cultures emphasize dignity through faith and family, leading to collective decisions, while the U.K. focuses on individual autonomy. Both allow withdrawal from futile treatment to alleviate suffering, but Arab approaches are more family centric.  Additionally, spirituality in  Arab cultures is  often collective and religious, compared to the personal and secular practices common in the U.K. Spiritual and cultural factors shape EoL decision-making in the Arab Middle East and the U.K. Arab cultures emphasize dignity through faith and family, leading to collective decisions, while the U.K. focuses on individual autonomy. Both allow withdrawal from futile treatment to alleviate suffering, but Arab approaches are more family centric. Additionally, spirituality in Arab cultures is often collective and religious, compared to the personal and secular practices common in the U.K.. Full text

JOURNAL OF PALLIATIVE MEDICINE ( U.S. ) | Online – 15 June 2026 – In the setting of serious illness, existential concerns related to meaning, purpose, and belonging often intensify and become salient as individuals confront the fragility and limits of life. In palliative care (PC) settings, psycho-existential symptoms are common and may become distressing. Although prevalence estimates vary depending on the constructs evaluated, existential suffering among people with serious illness is reported in approximately 13-35% of patients. Importantly, patients may move dynamically along a continuum from existential suffering to existential growth, with experiences that fluctuate over time with illness progression, psychosocial and spiritual factors, relationships, and care encounters. Recognizing and responding to existential suffering is a core component of PC practice. Written for frontline, interdisciplinary PC clinicians, this article uses a case-based approach to illustrate concrete, actionable serious illness communication techniques for responding to psychological distress... Full text

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‘Developing the H-5, a quantifiable spiritual assessment for hospice care,’ American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine ( U.S. ) | Online – 29 April 2026 – Hospice agencies are required to complete comprehensive assessments, including spiritual concerns, as well as provide spiritual counseling to patients and families. There is no standard for assessing spiritual care (SC) needs in hospice clinical contexts. This report presents the H-5 assessment model, which identifies the spiritual concerns of hospice patients and their families. The hope is that a standard hospice spiritual assessment will support the expertise of SC providers, positively impact interdisciplinary communication and ultimately improve patient care. This article documents the development of the H-5, a quantifiable spiritual assessment that can be used by hospice chaplains to identify spiritual concerns of hospice patients and their families. By sharing this assessment model, chaplains in other hospice agencies and regions will have a guide to document patient and family concerns... Full text

Download Literature Search No. 24 (February 2025) focused on psychosocial, spiritual and existential aspects of palliative and end-of-Life care

HEALTHCARE ( U.K. ) | Online – 2 June 2026 – Despite cultural, religious and spiritual (CRS) needs being essential to improving quality of life for patients with palliative and end-of-life care (PEoLC) needs, the terms regarding CRS needs are used interchangeably in the literature and in healthcare practice. Broadly, cultural needs in PEoLC means “the specific beliefs, values, traditions, and practices – rooted in ethnicity, religion, or community – that shape a patient’s experiences of illness, pain, death, and bereavement.” Religion and spirituality are more difficult to define, particularly as the two concepts can overlap. Traditionally, religion has been defined as a “system of beliefs and practices that is related to the transcendent, or as a search for significance in ways related to the sacred,” whereas a spiritual need “does not need to be synonymous with religiosity and that spiritual is relating to the search for existential meaning within any given life experience, regardless of practice of faith or religion.” Full text

Participants were asked to respond to four structured questions focused on the cultural, religious, and spiritual aspects for a proposed prototype toolkit:

1.  What practical challenges do you face in meeting cultural, religious, and spiritual needs at the end of life?

2.  What resources do you currently use?

3.  What resources or training do you feel are needed to address these challenges?

4.  What should a toolkit for this purpose contain and look like?

REVISTA CONFLUENCIA ( Spain ) | Online – 14 May 2026 – Spiritual care (SC) is an essential component of palliative care (PC), as it supports the existential and spiritual well-being of patients with serious illnesses. However, its effective implementation remains a challenge in many health systems. Spirituality is a dynamic and multifaceted dimension that becomes particularly relevant in PC by promoting meaning-making, coping and adaptation in the context of advanced illness. SC is grounded in genuine presence, active listening, and respect; however, its integration into clinical practice is affected by conceptual, professional, and organizational divergences. The implementation  of spirituality in healthcare requires overcoming these existing barriers through interdisciplinary models that incorporate SC as a core competency of comprehensive and humanized end-of-life care. Full text

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‘The influence of spirituality in the care of patients with advanced chronic illnesses and at the end of life: An integrative review,’ Journal of Religion & Health ( Spain ) | Online – 12 January 2026 – This review highlights the importance of integrating spirituality as a fundamental component of care for individuals with advanced or terminal illnesses. Building spiritual care (SC) competencies, such as empathetic communication, identifying needs, and referral, enhances well-being and shared decision-making, leading to more compassionate, person-centered, and dignified care across all care settings. In addition, the findings of this review offer practical and educational implications that complement the clinical considerations described above. Practically, the proposed model highlights core competencies that can be taught and applied across disciplines: identifying spiritual needs, facilitating meaning- and values-based conversations, and documenting preferences within advance care planning. Educationally, incorporating SC content into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula… Full text

PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE | Online – 8 May 2026 – The HOPE spiritual assessment tool ... is a clinician-administered tool used to support the identification of patients’ existential, spiritual, and religious concerns. In Sweden, a foundational translation exists, but a culturally adapted version suited to a secular and multicultural context is lacking. This study aimed to develop a culturally adapted Swedish version (HOPE-SE) and assess its comprehensibility (face validity) and perceived relevance and coverage (content validity) among specialized palliative care professionals. Experts generally perceived HOPE-SE as understandable, acceptable, and clinically useful for initiating conversations about existential, spiritual, and religious concerns. Feedback led to minor wording refinements, clarification of potentially sensitive formulations, and the addition of a brief consent-based introduction to support timing and patient autonomy. HOPE-SE provides the first expert-reviewed Swedish conversation guide addressing existential, spiritual, and religious needs... Full text

PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE | Online – 28 April 2026 – There is a growing need to enhance healthcare providers’ spiritual care (SC) competence, including for people receiving palliative care (PC). A preceding study of predictors of SC competence in a general group of nurses found that more competent nurses rated significantly higher in spiritual training adequacy, frequency of SC provision, and personal spirituality than other nurses; like the demographic variables of level of education, length of nursing experience, and sex, confidence and comfort in providing SC were not related to SC competence. This study aimed to replicate these relationships in a sample of PC nurses. This sample also allowed the testing of a hypothesis that PC nurses will tend to subscribe to more competent understandings of SC. While the results of the PC sample are largely concordant with those obtained in the general sample, the current study amends “training adequacy” as a predictor of SC competence to “experience (whether on-the-job or training) in caring for the dying.” Full text

JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK IN END-OF-LIFE & PALLIATIVE CARE | Online – 17 April 2026 – Patients receiving home palliative care (HPC) face complex biopsychosocial-spiritual (BPSS) needs, yet studies on their experiences are limited. This study sought to investigate the BPSS needs of HPC patients from a qualitative perspective. Between October 2023 and December 2024, patients admitted to Assisi HPC service in Singapore were invited to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. Three key themes emerged: 1) Total suffering, which captured the interconnected nature of physical, psychological, and spiritual distress; 2) Loss of personhood and identity, reflecting the disruptions in self-concept caused by illness; and, 3) Search for spiritual wellbeing, highlighting coping mechanisms shaped by faith, social connections, or acceptance of life’s course. While some participants found meaning, others struggled with despair. Protective factors such as social support, spirituality, and personal coping strategies were crucial... Full text

PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE | Online – 7 April 2026 – Spiritual care is a core element of palliative care (PC), addressing religious, spiritual and existential concerns and enhancing quality of life (QoL). In Finland, systematic assessment of patients’ spiritual needs is limited due to the lack of a validated instrument. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate the Spiritual Needs in Palliative Care (SNPC) questionnaire  for Finnish PC patients.  Clinically,  these findings highlight the ethical and practical imperative to integrate spiritual assessment into routine PC. Addressing spiritual needs can enhance patient satisfaction and has been associated with improved emotional functioning, coping, and QoL at the end of life. The authors believe that the new questionnaire could be used both in the clinics and studies of PC. The SPNC could be used both as a written document by the patient or a nurse or a physician as an aid for the professionals during the discussions with the patients. The questionnaire could also serve as a bench-marking tool for PC, too. Full text : Full text

JOURNAL OF PALLIATIVE CARE ( Portugal ) | Online – 28 February 2026 – Advances in medicine and public health have extended life expectancy, increasing the prevalence of chronic, progressive, life-limiting conditions such as advanced cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and end-stage organ failure. ¹ These shifts challenge healthcare systems to move beyond curative models and embrace holistic, person-centered approaches. Meeting not only physical but also psychological, social, spiritual, and existential needs has become essential, particularly at the end-of-life (EOL). Palliative care (PC) explicitly aims to relieve suffering and improve quality of life for patients and families facing life-threatening illness. However, access to PC remains uneven, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, compounding disparities in care. Beyond physical symptoms, many patients experience existential distress – feelings of hopelessness, purposelessness, and loss of meaning – that are closely associated with depression, demoralization, and the wish to hasten death. Full text

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‘Life review interventions in palliative care: A systematic review of patient-centered outcomes,’ American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Medicine ( Portugal ) | Online – 2 January 2026 – This review suggests that life review interventions (LRI) may offer meaningful psychological and spiritual support to adults with advanced or terminal illness, particularly in reducing symptoms such as anxiety and depression and in enhancing spiritual well-being. However, the variability in outcomes indicates that these interventions are not universally effective. Healthcare professionals should consider individual preferences, cultural context, and baseline psychological or spiritual needs when integrating life review into holistic, person-centered care plans. Although the findings are encouraging, the evidence supporting LRI remains mixed, especially regarding improvements in quality of life. Policymakers should approach the integration of life review into palliative care frameworks cautiously, treating it as a potentially beneficial but not yet fully established practice. Full text

‘Seeking something beyond themselves: A concept analysis of spiritual awakening experiences at the end of life,’ Nursing Reports ( Portugal ) | Online – 8 October 2025 – The concept of spiritual awakening (SA) at the end of life reveals itself to be a complex and multifactorial phenomenon, with a profound impact on a person’s confrontation with finitude. Recognizing and integrating SA into palliative care allows for a more comprehensive understanding of human consciousness. This concept analysis revealed four attribute domains: 1) Sensory–perceptual domain; 2) Affective/cognitive domain; 3) Relational domain; and, 4) Transcendental domain. Moreover, spiritual consciousness and the existential matrix were antecedents to this concept; revaluation of beliefs, finding spiritual serenity and inner freedom, fostering spiritual growth, and the desire to leave a legacy were its consequences. Transformation seems to be a notable consequence of SA experiences. That spiritual transformation represents a modification in the meaning system that underpins an individual’s self-definition... Full text

‘Spiritual care competence in palliative care: A concept analysis,’ Journal of Religion & Health ( Portugal ) | Online – 8 August 2025 – Integrating spirituality into clinical practice enables a more comprehensive response to the full spectrum of human needs, which is why spiritual care (SC) competence emerges as an aptitude that fits the profile and skills to be developed by those working on care provision. Regrettably, not enough attention has been paid to SC competence… This study aims to define the main attributes of the concept of SC competence in palliative care, identify its antecedents and consequences, examine its empirical referents, and clarify the conceptual boundaries. Main attributes were organized into three main domains: 1) Intrapersonal resources, such as spiritual awareness, humility, sensitivity, confidence, wisdom, and intuition; 2) Interpersonal resources, such as presence, active listening, compassion, and empathy; and, 3) Transpersonal resources, such as the ability to establish meaningful connections, assist in finding meaning, and explore hope Full text

BMC PALLIATIVE CARE ( China ) | Online – 23 February 2026 – The implementation of spiritual care (SC) in end-of-life settings faces multifaceted challenges that transcend simple logistical or knowledge deficits. This review demonstrates that successful implementation is fundamentally driven by behavioral determinants, most notably the rigid construction of professional roles and the conceptual ambiguity surrounding spirituality. Consequently, practitioners must act as behavioral catalysts; by proactively initiating dialogue, they can bridge the gap between a patient’s latent needs and their perceived role boundaries. Without such deliberate attention, palliative care cannot be considered truly holistic. First, all palliative staff must be equipped with high-quality education that prioritizes communication competencies and personal reflexivity, enabling them to navigate their own biases and fears. Second, SC should be embedded within electronic medical records and clinical guidelines to ensure it is resourced and valued alongside physical interventions. Full text

BMC PALLIATIVE CARE | Online – 5 January 2026 – Spirituality and spiritual care (SC) are recognised as integral components of palliative care (PC) practice. Because of the diverse nature of this unique part of humanity, it may be challenging to describe what spirituality is or to ensure that SC is delivered consistently in PC settings. However, failure to address the spiritual needs of a person and those who are important to them, who are in receipt of PC, can contribute to unnecessary distress. The findings from this mixed methods study show that many members of the PC team are actively engaged in supporting people with life-limiting illness and their families with their spiritual needs and concerns. Respondents were able to offer a rich insight into what they believed spirituality is and the vital role it plays in delivering PC. Despite a lack of training in this aspect of care, many respondents felt confident in engaging with this aspect of care, although there was also a clear recognition of the need for further support and training. Full text

PALLIATIVE MEDICINE IN PRACTICE ( Poland ) | Online – 9 December 2025 – Spiritual support is a competence that is part of holistic patient care in palliative care (PC) and is also required among physicians. This article aimed to review previous studies and research on spiritual competence among PC physicians and the perspectives for the development of this competence based on available world and Polish literature in the years 2013-2023. For this purpose, the scoping review method was used, and 12 articles were analyzed in detail. The results obtained allow us to conclude that spirituality is widely researched in the world literature and to a much lesser extent in Polish science. Physicians indicate the need for further education in spiritual support. Spiritual care and its development as a competence of medical professionals is a very topical subject today. In the development of educational programmes, care should be taken to tailor the content provided to specific groups of professionals and to complement it with practical training. Full text

BMC PALLIATIVE CARE ( Mexico ) | Online – 4 December 2025 – Spiritual care is a critical, yet underutilized, dimension of palliative medicine. Physicians’ willingness to engage is shaped by personal values, training, and institutional structures. Without explicit training and structured support, physicians are left to navigate spiritual issues intuitively, leading to inconsistent care practices. This systematic review highlights the urgent need for educational interventions and value-based professional development to enable physicians to  provide compassionate,  holistic care that includes   addressing patients’  spiritual needs.

Training programs must move beyond the theoretical to equip physicians with practical communication skills, self-awareness to do overall good for the patient, and ethical frameworks grounded in axiological reflection. Furthermore, integrating spirituality into palliative care not only honors patient preferences but strengthens the therapeutic alliance, promotes dignity at the end of life, and supports more humane, meaningful medical practice. Full text

PALLIATIVE MEDICINE IN PRACTICE ( Hungary ) | Online – 8 July 2025 – This qualitative research on end-of-life (EoL) spirituality revealed that for EoL care professionals, spirituality is an important dimension with complex and multifaceted meanings. Focus group discussions confirmed that the concept of spirituality cannot be reduced to religion alone – in contrast to several literature studies on hospice nurses, nurses, doctors, and health workers, the focus group participants did not identify spirituality exclusively with religion and did not describe SC as a religious act… The words used in response to the question “What is spirituality?” suggest that the image of spirituality held by the interviewed professionals corresponds to a widely used definition of spirituality: the search for ultimate meaning, purpose, and transcendence, and a connection with self, others, community, nature and the sacred. Moreover, it has also been complemented by elements such as “autonomy” and “letting go of burdens.” One significant insight of the research is... Full text

BMC PALLIATIVE CARE ( Brazil ) | Online – 1 July 2025 – Dignity therapy (DT) is a psychotherapy that has gained increasing interest and use in the field of palliative care (PC). Available evidence suggests benefits across various dimensions of health particularly in the perception of dignity, relief of existential suffering, reduction of distress, anxiety, and depression, and improvements in spiritual well-being. However, some findings regarding its effectiveness remain inconclusive, which may be attributed to limitations in study designs and the qualitative nature of the intervention. Benefits have also been observed for family members, as well as for children, adolescents, and young people with life-limiting illnesses. The expansion of DT has led to the adaptation of its tools to different linguistic and geographic contexts, its application in various clinical settings, and the inclusion of a broader range of professionals in its delivery. As a brief and economically feasible intervention, further research is needed to address existing gaps, gain a deeper understanding of its impact, and support its integration into PC services. Full text

BMC PALLIATIVE CARE ( Bangladesh ) | Online – 18 April 2026 – Advanced cancer patients face complex psychosocial and spiritual turmoil beyond physical symptoms. Integrating structured psychological counselling, spiritual support, and family-centered interventions, advance care planning (ACP) in palliative (PC) care can help preserve dignity, reduce multidimensional suffering, and enhance meaning at the end of life. The authors identified four interrelated themes: 1) Living with uncertainties and despair; 2) Conflicting thoughts: 3) Aspects of interpersonal and social relationships; and, 4) Unspoken distress and seeking debriefing. These themes profoundly reflected uncertainties, despair, conflicting thoughts of feeling like burden, guilt, shame, social withdrawal, hastening death or suppressed grief to protect loved ones. Distorted familial terms, and spiritual distress from fleeting thoughts of afterlife and need for debrief were expressed. Practically, these findings can guide the development of national and institutional policies that integrate routine psychological support, structured debriefing, and ACP into PC. Full text

PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE ( Türkiye ) | Online – 4 March 2026 – Nurses should be aware that spirituality is often central to an individual’s sense of self and involves feelings and thoughts that bring purpose and meaning to their life. Nurses’ perceptions, awareness and competencies in spiritual care (SC) should be increased to meet patients’ spiritual needs and improve their quality of life. Therefore, nurses should be trained in spirituality, spiritual support, and SC. Increasing nurses’ awareness of spiritual support and SC will help them communicate more closely with patients approaching death, more easily identify patients at risk of spiritual distress, and more readily meet patients’ spiritual needs. Nevertheless, nurses should allow patients to share their feelings with them without hesitation. Nurses should make patients approaching death feel valued and cared for. Nurses should take the time to listen to patients in order to better identify their spiritual and SC needs. Nurses should pay attention to the patient’s beliefs and rituals. Full text

NURSING REPORTS | Online – 16 January 2026 – This study highlights significant discrepancies between the perceived psychological and spiritual needs of palliative patients and the extent to which these needs are met. Despite some educational exposure, most nurses feel underprepared, emotionally exhausted, and unsupported, while acknowledging the critical role of interdisciplinary care teams. Based on these findings, several key recommendations emerge. First, palliative care (PC) education should be strengthened at undergraduate, postgraduate, and lifelong learning levels, with greater emphasis on the psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of care. Second, healthcare institutions should provide emotional and professional support for nurses working in palliative settings to reduce emotional exhaustion and prevent burnout. Finally, greater support and education should be offered to family caregivers, who currently bear much of the responsibility for care, particularly in home-based settings. Full text

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS ( The Netherlands ) | Online – 23 June 2026 – This study underscores that continuity of spiritual care is more than a matter of structural coordination. It depends on sustained relationships, cultural and linguistic attunement, and mutual understanding across disciplines and settings. From this perspective, continuity of spiritual care (SC) supports not only coordinated service delivery, but also families’ ongoing meaning-making in the face of uncertainty, loss, and transition. Improving continuity requires attention to managerial, informational, and relational continuity. Embedding SC into proactive planning and interdisciplinary routines, supported by training and aligned organisational structures, may enhance its accessibility, responsiveness, and value across the paediatric palliative care continuum. Ultimately, meeting families’ existential needs is not an optional enhancement, but an integral part of delivering humane, dignified, and person-centred care. Full text

REVISTA BIOÉTICA ( Brazil ) | Online – 22 May 2026 – The spiritual needs identified in children and adolescents include the desire to find meaning in the illness process, sustain hope, express faith and maintain religious practices, receive comfort at the end of life, and preserve emotional bonds with family

members, friends and the healthcare team. These needs are, in turn, shaped by individual factors such as age and diagnosis, as well as by family and cultural backgrounds, highlighting the significant influence of parents and support networks on the development and maintenance of spirituality during hospitalization. Spirituality also emerges as an important coping strategy for caregivers, for whom faith, prayer and interpersonal connections provide emotional support and meaning to deal with the challenges of their children’s illness. This spiritual dimension proves essential in promoting well-being, hope, meaning and comfort, especially in contexts of vulnerability and suffering. However, the impact of spirituality may be ambivalent, involving feelings of hope… Full text

JOURNAL OF PEDIATRIC NURSING , 2026;86;January-February:526-534 ( Portugal ). The main aim of this review was to map the available evidence in the literature on the spirituality of children, adolescents, and young adults with complex, life-limiting, and/or life-threatening chronic conditions. The review presents ample and well-founded evidence that underlines the complexity, variability, and importance of spirituality while living within a paediatric complex context. It supports the imperative to develop and nurture the spiritual dimension in the care of these children. Given the heightened vulnerability inherent in the health-illness continuum, and its significance within the therapeutic relationship, attending to the particularities of these children’s spirituality is imperative in order to improve their quality of life and the quality of care. Although this review presents a wide range of content, there is still an urgent need to develop studies on the concept of spirituality and spiritual care in specific subgroups of this paediatric population… Full text

PALLIATIVE & SUPPORTIVE CARE ( Japan ) | Online – 24 June 2026 – Although spiritual pain in cancer patients has been extensively studied, little is known about the spiritual pain experienced by bereaved caregivers in Japan. The constructs of spiritual pain among bereaved caregivers of cancer patients may include loneliness, life’s heartlessness, a sense of unfinished business, distress over patient deterioration, remorse, a sense of loss, and regret. The [author’s] findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the spiritual pain experienced by bereaved caregivers. Future studies should expand the population to explore appropriate responses and interventions for spiritual pain of bereaved caregivers, the correlation between spiritual pain of patients and their caregivers, and the relationship between caregivers’ psychosocial backgrounds and their spiritual pain. This study represents an initial step toward scale development and requires validation in independent samples. Future research should address the limitations identified, particularly the need to control for depression and employ confirmatory factor analysis. Full text

HEALTHCARE | Online – 17 June 2026 – The findings indicated relatively elevated death anxiety (DA) and spiritual well-being scores, while death literacy (DL) scores were moderate... Significant associations among these variables suggested that they represent interconnected psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of the caregiving experience. DL showed a negative association with DA, whereas spiritual well-being showed positive associations with both DA and DL. Furthermore, higher spiritual well-being scores were associated with higher  DL scores, while higher DL  scores were associated  with lower DA

scores. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the relationships among DA, spiritual well-being, and DL among relatives of patients receiving palliative care (PC). However, given the cross-sectional design of the study, the direction and underlying mechanisms of these associations cannot be determined and should therefore be interpreted with caution. The findings highlight the relevance of psychological, spiritual, and informational factors within the caregiving experience and support the importance of considering these dimensions within PC. Full text

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‘ Death literacy in a United States community: A cross-sectional study, ’ Omega – Journal of Death & Dying | Online – 19 June 2026 –This study identified key factors associated with higher death literacy in a U.S. community, with experience in end-of-life care emerging as the most significant predictor. While the community demonstrated strengths in awareness of support resources and access to emotional support, important gaps were identified in practical caregiving skills and factual knowledge related to end-of-life (EoL) care. The findings highlight the need for targeted interventions aimed at improving hands-on caregiving skills, increasing knowledge of EoL care options, and enhancing navigation of the healthcare system. Community-based education programs and professional training initiatives may be effective strategies for addressing these gaps. The death literacy strengths in this community point towards avenues of harnessing EoL experience and support to care for others, prompting a grass-roots approach to improving care. Full text

‘Death literacy: Tensions between theory and practice,’ Palliative Care & Social Practice ( U.K. ) | Online – 24 March 2026 – The tension in death literacy between knowing, and the actual practice of establishing literacy in community spaces, draws attention to gaps in the medical guidelines and the ways policy implicitly addresses the importance of death literacy (DL). Thinking about DL through the lenses of when , who and what to develop meaningful accounts of what knowledge, skills, information and literacy might look like in relation to death is critical. More so, it is essential to think through what this kind of knowing might look like in practice. Addressing DL as a form of knowing for publics and healthcare professionals is vital. Power dynamics and questions of health inequalities come to bear on how one can become death literate, and whether death “literacy” as a term is best suited in all contexts. These interpretations create space for qualitative research accounts to bolster the current DL index tools, to further and deepen understandings of death literacy... Full text

‘Psychological and behavioural responses to death anxiety in older adults with chronic illnesses: A systematic integrative review,’ Frontiers in Psychology ( Portugal ) | Online – 9 December 2025 – This integrative review highlights how death anxiety plays a significant role in shaping the psychological and behavioural responses of older adults coping with chronic illness. Rather than being a single emotional reaction, death anxiety is actually a complex phenomenon influenced by various factors, such as psychosocial resources, personal experiences, and how individuals perceive their remaining time. The results reveal that death anxiety can lead to different outcomes: it can trigger avoidance behaviours, such as denial and abandonment of treatment, or it can encourage positive actions, such as proactive self-care and acceptance of existential issues. These outcomes appear to be influenced by factors such as spirituality, self-esteem, social support, and the burden that the illness represents for the individual. Overall, this review emphasises the importance of developing theoretical and clinical strategies that consider the complex relationship between emotions related to death... Full text

BRAIN SCIENCES ( Italy ) | Online – 4 June 2026 – Spirituality is increasingly recognised as a core dimension of holistic and palliative care. Neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease involve prolonged trajectories of loss, uncertainty and relational change, which may heighten spiritual and existential needs for patients, particularly among those involved in caregiving, such as family caregivers and, to a lesser extent, healthcare professionals. This scoping review maps how spirituality is understood, experienced and addressed in caregiving for end-stage neurodegenerative disease, encompassing family members, relatives and healthcare professionals as caregivers. Across the literature, spirituality emerged as a dynamic, relational and context-dependent dimension of caregiving; however, caregivers’ spiritual needs and processes were described far more frequently than they were systematically recognised or supported within healthcare systems.). Full text

JOURNAL OF RELIGION & HEALTH, 2026;65(3):2968-2991. Chaplains and clergy are the main source of spiritual well-being ... for African-American hospice patients and their caregivers... Both chaplains and clergy used active listening techniques for building rapport and making connections. Chaplains focused on cultural sensitivity and open-ended questions, whereas clergy emphasized reconciliation and life review. Chaplains typically are getting to know patients and caregivers for the first time, whereas clergy tend to have previous connections and trust with patients. This aligns with documented spiritual care (SC) requirements and guidelines which highlight the many activities associated with high-quality SC. These include chaplains supporting SC, coordinating end-of-life care, and bereavement support and clergy preparing individuals spiritually for death, managing relationships and resolutions, and administering religious rites and rituals according to the individual’s beliefs. what clergy and chaplains provide together is a more comprehensive care approach for patient and caregiver. Full text

INDONESIAN CONTEMPORARY NURSING JOURNAL , 2026;10(2):179-193 ( Indonesia ). Two major assessment domains were identified. First, spiritual needs encompass perceptions of death, hopelessness, dependency, fear, avoidance, anxiety, stress, depression, quality of life (QoL), and religious barriers. Second, family support includes caregiver burden, fatigue, depression, declining physical health, anxiety, and financial stress. These factors influence both patient well-being and the family’s capacity to provide end-of-life (EoL) care. For global nursing practice, these findings underscore the importance of adopting or adapting assessment instruments that go beyond religion to capture patients’ spiritual needs, including existential concerns, reconciliation, and hope, while also providing a structured evaluation of family support, caregiver burden, and psychosocial well-being. These instruments should be culturally sensitive and validated for diverse patient populations. By implementing comprehensive assessments that integrate both patient and family dimensions... Full text