“It Depends”: Viewpoints of Patients, Physicians, and Nurses on Patient-Practitioner Prayer in the Setting of Advanced Cancer

Context—Although prayer potentially serves as an important practice in offering religious/ spiritual support, its role in the clinical setting remains disputed. Few data exist to guide the role of patient-practitioner prayer in the setting of advanced illness. Objectives—To inform the role of prayer in the setting of life-threatening illness, this study used mixed quantitative-qualitative methods to describe the viewpoints expressed by patients with advanced cancer, oncology nurses, and oncology physicians concerning the appropriateness of clinician prayer. Methods—This is a cross-sectional, multisite, mixed-methods study of advanced cancer patients (n = 70), oncology physicians (n = 206), and oncology nurses (n = 115). Semistructured interviews were used to assess respondents ’ attitudes toward the appropriate role of prayer in the context of advanced cancer. Theme extraction was performed based on interdisciplinary input using grounded theory. Results—Most advanced cancer patients (71%), nurses (83%), and physicians (65%) reported that patient-initiated patient-practitioner prayer was at least occasionally appropriate. Furthermore