O PAPEL DA ESPIRITUALIDADE NO PROCESSO DE SAÚDE DO INVÍDUO RENAL CRÔNICO

Abstract

The chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the several pathologies that stand out in the world epidemiological scenario. It’s been considered a problem of public health, not only because of the high rates of mortality that it occasions, but also because it produces alterations in the patients’ psychic, social and economic contexts. At the time of diagnosis, many renal patients ask themselves about their present, past and, above all, about the inflicting uncertainties of their future. Hence, the objective of the present study, featuring as a review of literature, was to understand the influence that spirituality can have in the health framework of chronic renal failure patients. The review of scientific articles and bibliographic material have pointed out that, even in early stages, researches show that spirituality has emerged as a new therapeutic in the lives of these patients, promoting the reorganization of emotional and physiological issues and, consequently, a change in the way they face the disease. Therefore, spirituality is an element that helps patients develop an attitude of more confidence, which reverberates in the clinical situation and, consequently, in their quality of life, since the reestablishment of optimism and strength is able to promote improvement in the frameworks of anxiety, anguish and depression in which they tend to be found. On the other hand, there is a lack of investigations emphasizing on how spirituality manifests itself and brings change, in a direct manner, to physiological aspects of the organism, which can contribute even more to the successful treatment of chronic renal failure patients.