Spirituality-Focused Palliative Care to Improve Indonesian Breast Cancer Patient Comfort

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is an approach that focuses on improving a patient's quality of life. This research aimed to develop a path model of the relationships between the variables of nursing care (information, emotional support, technical support, and palliative care), patient coping, family support, patient spirituality, and patient comfort expressed through physical and emotional mediators. METHOD: This cross-sectional study involved 308 breast cancer patients from 3 referral hospitals in Jakarta, Indonesia. A structural equation model with Kolcaba's theory was used to develop a theoretical model estimating the path or relationships between the key variables. RESULTS: The results showed that palliative care significantly improved breast cancer patient comfort by reducing anxiety and depression. Furthermore, the study demonstrated a significant positive relationship between spirituality and emotional well-being. CONCLUSION: Spirituality-focused palliative care is fundamentally importance for breast cancer patients. Nurses play an essential role in providing spirituality-focused palliative care to promote comfort in breast cancer patients in Indonesia.