Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Religious and spiritual care is important in physical and mental health of patients and increases their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of religious-spiritual care on stress among post-surgery Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) patients in the rehabilitation center of Baghiyatollah hospital of Tehran, Iran on 2013.

Methods: This research was a semi-experimental study that was performed on 68 participants with coronary artery bypass graft. Participants were selected purposefully and then randomly assigned to: interventional (34) and control groups (34) Religious spiritual care-based training package on the pattern of Richards and Bergin was conducted in the intervention group. Basic data was collected by a Demographic Questionnaire and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). Mean stress core before and after the intervention was measured. Analysis of data was computerized adopting the SPSS 20 package software.

Results: The Findings of this study did not indicate a significant difference between mean stress before the intervention (P = 0.163) but showed a significant difference after the intervention (P = 0.000). After the intervention, a significant difference was observed between mean stress score of the interventional (P = 0.000) and control (P = 0.014) groups. Stress in the interventional group was significantly reduced while it was increased in the control group.

Conclusions: The results showed that applying religious-spiritual care significantly decreases the stress of patients. It has been suggested that nurses can use religious-spiritual care as a safe method in coronary artery bypass graft surgery care.