Analysis of the Spiritual Orientations and the Hopelessness Levels of the Patients Diagnosed with COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

AIM: This study aims to identify the spiritual orientations and hopelessness levels of the patients diagnosed with COVID-19. METHOD: In this study designed as cross-sectional and correlational research, the sample was comprised of 199 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 at a research hospital located in eastern Turkey. Data were collected between December 2020 and January 2021. The research data were collected online by using survey form, the Spiritual Orientation Scale, and Beck Hopelessness Scale to reduce face-to-face interaction due to the isolation policy. The collected data were analyzed via descriptive statistics, the t-test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, and the Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: The mean scores obtained by the participant COVID-19 patients from the Spiritual Orientations Scale and the Beck Hopelessness Scale were found, respectively, as 96.13 +/- 20.16 and 6.15 +/- 4.59 points. It was determined that the participants of the study had a high-level of spiritual orientations and low-level hopelessness, and there was a negative correlation between them (p<.05). CONCLUSION: In this study, it was identified that the participant patients diagnosed with COVID-19 had high-level spiritual orientations and low-level hopelessness. It was found that as the participant COVID-19 patients had higher spiritual orientation levels, their hopelessness levels fell. Spirituality can reduce hopelessness by strengthening the coping mechanisms of COVID-19 patients. It can increase the psychological resistance of patients by increasing positive thoughts.