Faith Integration in Nursing Leadership

Faith Integration in Nursing Leadership

For the faith-based nurse, the spiritual dimension is central to nursing practice, just as clinical knowledge and technique are at the heart of the biomedical model. For the nurse leader, being active, caring and a being a supportive listener will go a long way to provide assistance in helping patient's cope with fears, anxieties, and medical history. Despite the models of patient-centered care, it is easy to lose sight of the spiritual side of an individual patient's being. Often, medical professionals focus only on the urgency of providing urgent care, tangible practices that focus less on the emotional side and more on the tactical. At times, this may cause the patient to feel less "whole," and depending on their own spiritual views, may actually be detrimental to some aspects of healing. Physical assessment and attention to needs can often be a quicker and more tangible activity than the spiritual needs where the spiritual needs often takes more time and requires a greater commitment from the nurse. As nurses, we treat the "whole" person, not just one part of them. Our goal over the past few decades has been to move from a bio-medical model of care to a holistic model that allows us to understand and to react to emotional and spiritual concerns as well. The very nature of our own calling means that we can simply ask the patient if we can help them with their spiritual needs and listen to them with sincerity. This shows respect, and will achieve a greater comfort need for all concerned (Ashcroft, 2010). "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray… Is anyone among you sick? & #8230; Let them pray over him…. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick" (James 5:13-15).

Sometimes we take it for granted that adults (particularly the geriatric patient) have already formed a mature and exhaustive set of spiritual beliefs. To be an advocate of patient care, it is necessary to address the entire paradigm of a family's health care belief system and to understand how such systems may interact. For instance, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization has recommended that a spiritual assessment become a required part of any overall patient assessment. This is difficult since most healthcare organizations are unable to define spirituality, at least in a way that is meaningful to the bulk of the population (Spiritual Assessment, 2011).

Many health care providers actually embrace this recommendation, believing that helping to address psychological, emotional and mental wounds often intertwine with spiritual concerns. Treating the patient effectively then involves an understanding of the individual's spiritual beliefs (Barnum, 2008). The key to this seems to be something that we can take into all populations by revising the language in providing a simple questionnaire that helps to understand belief systems. A child, for instance, cannot always articulate difficult questions that deal with how religion and spirituality interact within their lives and personalities, but they can answer questions that surround the very essence of the term (Rose, Westefield, & Ansley, 2008).

Simple questions can uncover basic views on spirituality and need. 1) What makes you feel safe? 2) Do you have a special place where you go when you are frightened or uncomfortable? 3) Tell me how you know the differences between right and wrong? 4) Who or what do you trust? 5) How do you know about the world? Who told you? If we remember that faith and hope are associated with spirituality, we can replace feelings of fear with suspending disbelief and give hope for the future (Hart & Waddell, 2003).

My personal journey with Christianity focuses on the mission of the Assemblies of God and the Pentacostal Movement. This emphasizes a direct personal experience with God through Prayer, Baptism and Evangelism. Based on Acts II: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place… all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them." In this, we are an evangelical sect and focus on the belief that the scriptures are 100% true, accurate and vital in contemporary life. We accept Christ as a personal Lord and Savior and also that baptism with the Holy Spirit is separate from conversion. It is baptism that allows the spiritual gifts from God (speaking in tongues and divine healing) to come to humans. We believe their views are the most correct form of the Apostolic Age of the early church, the one most focused on biblical authority, spiritual gifts, and miracles as part of everyday life (McGee, 1986).

Spiritual living is far more than professing religious beliefs to a congregation. Spiritual living is a construct that allows the working professional to use their intellectual and emotional talents, in combination with their spiritual beliefs, to aid and improve the spiritual lives of others. To round out a more definitive template of spiritual living, we can use biblical lessons to understand the journey spirituality takes:

Receiving the saturation of the Holy Spirit enables the individual to witness the validity of Christ with supernatural workings that could only be possible from the Son of God. Christ commands us to continue witnessing for Him; spiritual gifts are divinely inspired and Christ's ministry on earth the basis for all of this that unravels (Acts 2:22). As Christ traveled through the known world performing miracles, demonstrating faith, healing and discerning spirits for his testament and ministry, so too much we emulate that within our own world (Grieg & Springer, 1993).

The Nurse has a special responsibility after accepting Christ. Jesus tells us that we must use our gifts for the benefit of all mankind, and healing is a unique and universal gift that all individuals need. The uniqueness of these individual gifts are non-duplicating, so they must be used by the receiver. Benjamin Franklin even said, "Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What is a sundial in the shade?" The body is part of this process, too, and must be revered toward the standards set forth (Chadwell, 1991).