Furthermore, the policy seems to put a burden on the hospital to help provide those services, which seems to put an undue burden on the hospital. Writing policies that guaranteed access would be permitted, but did not in any way guarantee facilitation of that access would seem to be a better policy. One of the least understood religious groups in the United States is the Church of Scientology. There is a strong belief that members of this religious group are adverse to modern medical care, a belief that I shared before researching their organization. However, from the information that I could find, Scientologists are not opposed to modern medicine. On the contrary, the Church of Scientology has an official policy of not being involved in either medical diagnosis or treatment of medical illnesses. They believe that underlying illness inhibits a person's spiritual journey, so that they encourage members to seek treatment for any underlying illnesses. This treatment can include medications as well as other treatments that are considered medically necessary. Moreover, this belief in modern medicine extends to mental illness or cognitive deficits, contrary to rumors that Scientologists do not believe in mental health diagnosis (See generally, Church of Scientology, 2012).

Because Scientologists are open to modern medical care, their religious preferences really do not appear as if they would impact access to medical services. In fact, even after careful consideration, I really cannot see how their religion would have...

The only real concern is being respectful of individual religious issues and concerns and not allowing my preconceived notions of their religion to impact how I treat the patient. Prior to learning about Scientology I would have made assumptions about patients that may have impacted how I would have tried to provide services to patients who practiced that religion, limiting their access to care through my own misunderstanding of their religion.
The main lesson that I learned from this project was that I had preconceived notions about at least one religious group. Because of the press surrounding Jett Travolta's death, I assumed that Scientologists were opposed to modern medical care, which was what was reported at that time. Only upon engaging in this research did I find out otherwise. It made me aware that I should not make any assumptions about a person's religious beliefs and how they will impact healthcare decisions when approaching patients, but ask them about it instead.

References

Church of Scientology. (2012). Do Scientologists use medical doctors? Retrieved March 6,

2012 from Scientology Newsroom website: http://www.scientologynews.org/faq/do-scientologists-use-medical-doctors.html

Hmong shamans help at Valley hospitals. (2009, November 10). Retrieved March 5, 2012 from Fresno Bee website: http://www.fresnobee.com/2009/10/10/1669868/hmong-shamans-help-at-valley-hospitals.html