Toward a Fully Fledged Integration of Spiritual Care and Medical Care.

In this article, we aimed to set out current problems that hinder a fully fledged integration of spiritual and medical care, which address these obstacles. We discuss the following five statements: 1) spiritual care requires a clear and inclusive definition of spirituality; 2) empirical evidence for spiritual care interventions should be improved; 3) understanding patients' experiences of contingency is paramount to deliver effective spiritual care; 4) attention to spiritual needs of patients is a task for every health care practitioner; 5) courses on spirituality and spiritual care should be mandatory in the medical curriculum. Current problems might be overcome by speaking each other's language, which is crucial in interdisciplinary research and in good interdisciplinary collaboration.

Relating to the Experience of Contingency in Patients With Advanced Cancer: An Interview Study in U.S. Patients.

Context: Being diagnosed with incurable cancer can be a life-changing experience, evoking different spiritual questions and needs. Confronting a serious life-threatening event occurs not only often unexpected but also can disrupt a person's self-image and ideals of their personhood. This confrontation makes it difficult for people to integrate it into their personal life story-otherwise referred to as an experience of contingency.

Modes of relating to contingency: An exploration of experiences in advanced cancer patients.

Objective: Throughout their lives, people are confronted with unexpected life events, which can be difficult to incorporate into their life narratives. Such a confrontation can result in an experience of contingency. Different ways of relating to contingency have been described by Wuchterl: denying, acknowledging, and "encounter with the Other.

Request for organ donation without donor registration: a qualitative study of the perspectives of bereaved relatives.

Background: In the Netherlands, consent from relatives is obligatory for post mortal donation. This study explored the perspectives of relatives regarding the request for consent for donation in cases without donor registration.

Methods: A content analysis of narratives of 24 bereaved relatives (14 in-depth interviews and one letter) of unregistered, eligible, brain-dead donors was performed.