Introduction:

Discovering the meaning of life is one of the spiritual needs of the human being and functions as an internal resource for facing up to the adversities in a more positive way. It is considered as the fundamental driving force for human existence, since the person having reasons to be alive is able to endure hardship. One of the diseases causing spiritual symptoms of the loss of the meaning of life is cancer.

Objective:

To make a reflection on the meaning of life o spiritual resource for care of oncological patient and for the nursing professional taking care of him/her.

Methods:

Critical, descriptive and reflective study that analyzed textbooks, articles on the meaning of life and literture review and conducted in Medline, Bdef and Lilacs databases through the Virtual Library of Health in Brazil by using the following keywords in English and the Boolean operators to increase the results. Cancer AND "Nursing care" OR "Care" AND "Spirituality" AND "Meaning of Life". National and international original and review articles, which had been published from 2013 to 2016, were selected.

Conclusions:

The meaning of life works as a protective mechanism against disease in the patient and provides better perception of spiritual wellbeing and better queality of life. Regarding the nursing professionals, it acts as a resource of spiritual care for themselves, and makes better sensation of wellbeing and adaptation to their function possible.

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