Existential pain--an entity, a provocation, or a challenge?

"Existential pain" is a widely used but ill-defined concept. Therefore the aim of this study was to let hospital chaplains (n=173), physicians in palliative care (n=115), and pain specialists (n=113) respond to the question: "How would you define the concept existential pain?" A combined qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the answers was conducted. In many cases, existential pain was described as suffering with no clear connection to physical pain.

Questions posed to hospital chaplains by palliative care patients.

Context: Questions of vital importance are actualized when facing one's own death. Studies on patient need for a hospital chaplaincy as an integral part of hospital care are lacking.

Objective: To categorize the three most important questions patients pose to hospital chaplains at the end of life and to assess the degree to which hospital staff should be able to handle them.

Spiritual needs as defined by Swedish nursing staff.

A study was undertaken to describe how Swedish nursing staff at six different units characterize spiritual needs in a broad context, including both religious and existential issues. Another aim was to study whether there are any special groups of patients for whom these needs are considered to be of utmost importance. A questionnaire comprising two open-ended questions (the focus of the study) and six background questions was mailed to 191 nurses.