Palliative Professionals’ Views on the Importance of Religion, Belief, and Spiritual Identities toward the End of Life

Abstract

Abundant literature has argued the significance of religion, belief, and spirituality at the end of life. This study aims to add to this literature by exploring palliative professionals’ views in this area. By means of an in-depth interviewing method, this paper reports data from 15 hospice and palliative care professionals. Participants were recruited from five hospice and palliative care organisations, and the data were managed and analysed with thematic analysis and NVivo (version 11). This study found three main reasons that make religion, belief, and spirituality important for patients and their loved ones when facing imminent death: the sense of comfort and security, meaning making, and closure. These reasons are not independent from one another, but complementary. This paper offers some implications for practice and concludes with a call for further research.