Spirituality in the face of illness

The motivation for carrying out this research arose when, passing through some of my university internships, my attention was drawn to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), as it is a place with a wide variety of devices, highly complex and invasive procedures and its beds occupied by patients who are mostly in a 'serious condition'. This type of unit generates fear in the family member, 'fear of the unknown', of the devices, of the procedures, causes anguish at not being able to accompany their family member and doubts at not knowing if the patient will leave this place alive, thus generating stress due to hospitalisation. This book presents a study on the Religious-Spiritual Coping (RSC) of relatives of patients in the ICU. The data was collected from family members while they were waiting to visit their relative, and they answered a questionnaire. The results of the study showed that the family members who took part in this research use more positive than negative SRC strategies. We can see that regardless of religion/spirituality, all family members believe in God and that this helps in the hospitalisation process.

Autorentext

Leticia Preti Schleder, brasileña nacida en Jundiaí, São Paulo. Empezó la carrera de Enfermería en 2006 y en 2009 viajó a la Amazonia como voluntaria para trabajar en salud y educación con la población ribereña. En 2010 se graduó como enfermera y en 2012 publicó su primer artículo en la revista Acta Paulista de Enfermagem, iniciando su vida literaria.