Patterns of Spirituality in Persons with Advanced HIV Disease

Abstract

This study was conducted to explicate the role of spirituality in dealing with the many struggles of advanced HIV disease. The research question that guided the study was: How is spiritual meaning structured in advanced stages of HIV disease? Published articles have lacked sound conceptions of spirituality that would allow it to be described apart from religion as a concept within humanistic science. Qualitative methodological assumptions were derived from interpretive interactionism. The spiritual experiences of 10 men and women in advanced-stage (symptomatic) HIV disease who self-identified that they had either spiritual or religious experiences that had helped them cope with HIV disease were interpreted. Data were collapsed, over three iterations, into three major themes to build the meaning of spirituality in HIV. Extracted themes were: purpose in life emerges from stigmatization; opportunities for meaning arise from a disease without a cure; and after suffering, spirituality frames the life. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc Res Nurs Health 21: 143-153, 1998.