Abstract
Patients with intractable neurological diseases experience ‘spiritual suffering’ after they are diag-nosed and the condition of their disease aggravates. Further, a scarcity of nursing studies that in-vestigate this experience exists. This study aims to show how nurses perceive the spiritual suffer-ing of patients with intractable neurological diseases, and how these nurses tackle this pain. The data used were records collected through semi-structured interviews, and the study subjects were nurses working in advanced treatment hospitals, who were able to speak adequately about the care provided to patients with intractable neurological diseases. A qualitative, recursive method was used for analysis. The study subjects spoke about the spiritual suffering experienced by the pa-tients, such as their questions about the meaning of life and their acceptance of the disease and impairment, isolation, and desires. In terms of the care provided in response to such pain, the nurses spoke about the following: ‘support that helps patients live the life that they wish to live’; ‘support that provides a foundation to the patient's life by making him or her believe that they are ‘capable’; and ‘support that places importance on the ‘here and now’ where possibilities exist, however small they may be.
