Espiritualidade no cuidado à criança com câncer: um passeio pela revisão integrativa.

Abstract

Spirituality can be seen as a coping strategy and emotional support for children, families as well as for professionals. Thus the study aimed to analyze the existing publications on the theme of spirituality in childhood cancer; identify those professionals who are interested in producing more on this theme and know the methodologies used and the results obtained from these surveys. It is an integrative review of quantitative and qualitative approach, focusing on the major methodological contents of journals. The survey was conducted over the Web of Science databases and SciELO data, with selection of productions from 2003 to 2014 using the following key words: child, cancer and spirituality. Six articles in English and six were found in Portuguese. The analysis was based on the production and discussion of tables and building categories. As a result we prepared two tables highlighting the most number of publications were in 2011 and 2013, most of the studies had authors such as doctors and nurses, and the main research subjects were children and adolescents with cancer. Based on the content of the articles were elaborated five categories: Spirituality as a coping strategy; Spirituality and palliative care; Spirituality and allopathic practices; Spiritual care in the context of nursing actions; The spiritual suffering. Each category was discussed based on the literature. Thus, it was observed that spirituality in most surveyed productions, addressing a positive spin on spirituality, evidenced as a coping strategy and emotional support for the child himself, family members and the professionals that are part of the cancer care child.