RESUMO
Este artículo aborda el problema del sufrimiento del hombre enfermo y lo define como una carencia de bienestar. Un estado moderado de dolor físico no siempre puede catalogarse como sufrimiento propiamente dicho. La única manera de erradicar el sufrimiento y de convertirlo en alegría y paz es encontrarle un sentido. El paciente sufriente deberá, con su propia ayuda y la de su facultativo, ser capaz de convertir en aliado el sentido de su dolor, este es sin lugar a dudas el mayor reto de la persona que padece una enfermedad. Sufrir sin sentido, es la explicación lógica de por qué se padece con verdadero sufrimiento pleno, que alcanza su mayor expresión ante el sufrimiento moral que aún cuando desaparece, deja siempre huellas indelebles que continúan siendo objeto de pesar. Es esta la razón por la cual una moral elevada deberá cultivarse en cada paciente, es un acto que forma parte consustancial con el propio arte de curar que es a lo que todos los facultativos están llamados a realizar. Los médicos, que habitualmente son los que más frecuentemente tratan a seres sufrientes, deben cultivar una cultura del sentido del sufrimiento en sus enfermos y en ellos mismos.
This article addresses the problem of suffering in the sick person and defines it as the lack of wellbeing. Not always can moderate state of physical pain be considered suffering as such. The only way of eliminating suffering and turning it into joy and peace is to find the meaning. The patient who suffers should be capable of turning the meaning of his/her pain into an ally, aided by himself/herself and by his/her physician. Beyond any doubt, this is the biggest challenge that a sick person may meet. Futile suffering is the logical explanation of why one truly and fully suffers, the highest expression of which is the moral suffering that even when it disappears, it always leaves behind lasting impressions that continue to be the object of grief. This is the reason why the morale of each patient must be boosted; this is an action that is part of the art of curing as such, a task that all physicians are called upon to perform. Therefore, the physicians, who are the ones that treat suffering people on a regular basis, should cultivate a culture of the meaning of suffering for their patients and for them.
RESUMO
When people have experienced a personally life-threatening event, individuals try to find the meaning of suffering. In order to provide nurses with information about how meaning is individually experienced, nurses should assess the degree of suffering and the patient's perceptions of the meaning of suffering. The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the MIST (the Meaning of Suffering Test) instrument originally developed by Starck (1983). The MIST consists of PART I and II. In this study, the validity and reliability of MIST I is tested except MIST II consisting of 17 open questions. The translation involved four steps: translation into Korean, checking agreement, translation into English, and arriving at a consensus. Then the Korean version of the MIST, PART I was tested with a sample of 160 patients with cancer who have experienced suffering. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal consistency was .92 for the total 20 items and .91, .89, and .88 for the three dimensions in that order. As a result of the factor analysis using principal component analysis and varimax rotation, three factors with eigenvalue of more than 1.0 were extracted and these factors explained 93.6 percent of the total variance. The items clustered together in this study were almost identical with initial scale and subscales reported by Starck. The instrument for accessing patients' perceptions of the meaning of suffering was identified as a tool with a high degree of reliability and validity. In this sense, this tool can be effectively utilized for assessment in caring for patients with cancer.