Buddhist Peaceful Means for Build Inner Peace in Medical Personnel Providing Spiritual Palliative Care to Cancer Patients
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Abstract
The study consisted of the following objectives: 1) to investigate context, problems, needs, and Buddhist peaceful means (Buddhist teachings that can be used to manage, prevent, remedy, and resolve conflicts in order to bring about inner and outer peace) that contribute to the inner peace of medical personnel providing spiritual palliative care to cancer patients; and 2) to propose Buddhist peaceful means conducive to building inner peace for medical personnel providing spiritual palliative care to cancer patients. The study used a mixed methods approach with exploratory sequential design by conducting in-depth interviews with twenty key informants, including Buddhist medical personnel who provided palliative care, as well as priests and volunteers who were Buddhist, Christian, and Muslim and provided end-of-life care services. This was followed by a focus group discussion with five experts. Based on the data obtained, a training program to build inner peace through Buddhist peaceful means was developed and then pre-tested with 16 medical workers who were selected by purposive sampling. The evaluation included measurement of the inner peace of medical personnel and after action review. The qualitative data were analyzed, while the quantitative data were examined using a t-test.
From the study, the following results are found:
1) Factors that cause anxiety include how to understand the patient’s true needs, how to build a good relationship, how to help patients, and how to have a firm grasp of spiritual care in the context of religions. Factors that lead to inner peace are the ability to be aware of one's emotions (mindfulness), being kind to oneself and to patients, the ability to listen deeply, the ability to let go and having a network of friends/colleagues to ask for help. The four foundations of mindfulness (Satipaṭṭhāna), the four sublime states of mind (Brahmavihārā), and the four bases of social solidarity (Saṅgahavatthu) are the Buddhist teachings that will lead to inner peace in medical personnel.
2) In order to apply the Buddhist peaceful means to build inner peace for medical personnel who provided spiritual palliative care to cancer patients, the researcher built the training program to develop the inner peace through focus group discussions, where the training program was evaluated by experts in Buddhism and palliative care, psychologists, and instructors of mindfulness training program. An online training program consists of 7-day online and 1-day onsite session. The program emphasizes self-training in daily life and group practice sessions everyday. The results of a pilot experiment with a sample group show that they are more mindful to manage their emotions, be more peaceful and compassionate to themselves and patients, have deep listening skills in caring for patients of different beliefs, able to let go whenever there is suffering, and have a friendly network. The post-test of a sample group is higher with a statistical significance of 0.05 level.
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