¶ … Health Care to Varied Faiths
Spirituality in Health Care
Providing
Health Care to All Faiths
Providing health care is a challenging prospect. Compounding the challenge is the need to provide health care to individuals with differing beliefs from that of the caregiver. Nurses must recognize the multifaceted paradigm of health care in that the patient has spiritual as well as physical needs. Addressing these needs becomes even more complex when the spiritual beliefs of the patient are unfamiliar to the nurse. Discovering the details of the patient's specific religious affiliation enables the nurse to provide quality, spiritually-appropriate care. The following discussion addresses several distinct cultural perspectives on healing
Perspective on Healing
Native American Indian Spirituality
One religion with distinctive health care beliefs is American Indian Spirituality. The Native American patient considers illness to be the result of spiritual problems (Native American, 2008). Further...
Healing practices focus on reestablishing balance, thus returning the individual to a whole, spiritually and physically pure state (Native American, 2008).
Confucianism
The followers of Confucius have a strong belief in familial ties (Cao, Chen, & Fan, 2011). These ties are more than simply physical in nature, but also metaphysical or spiritual (Cao et al., 2011). Maintaining a harmonious balance between the physical and spiritual is the family's responsibility (Cao et al., 2011). The locus of control in health care decision-making resides with the family rather than just the patient; thus patient autonomy is expanded to include these familial entities (Chen & Fan, 2010).
Judaism
While some ancient religions espoused the philosophy that intervening in a disease process was akin to heresy, followers of Judaism…
