Healing Hospital: The Development of a New

Healing Hospital:

The development of a new hospital basically incorporates an emphasis on the number of beds, location of each department, number of employees and the total cost of the building project. While these considerations are important, the planning of the development of a healing hospital is focused on ensuring that the facility will be a reflection of a healing environment. The healing hospital not only provides patient with a safe and comfortable environment while reminding the employees that they chose health care as a line of work but it also promotes a healing culture. The focus on creating a healing environment and healing culture is based on the fact that a healing hospital goes beyond the bricks, mortar and glass that were used to build the facility. A healing hospital has three major components which are:

A Healing Physical Environment:

The healing hospital not only takes into consideration how patients will be cared for but it also focuses on the staffs as caregivers and how it would engage with families. A loving, compassionate and aesthetically lovely environment promotes healing in a healing hospital (Eberst, n.d.). Such environments are constructed in ways that enable patients and families to deal with the stresses of illness. One of the major ways with which a healing hospital can have a physical healing environment is through the provision of a quite location that allows patients to sleep. This is because of the fact that a patient's body performs most of the repair during sleep as cells re-produce faster during this period.

Integration of Work Design and Technology:

This is the second major component of a healing hospital since it enables staff to work more effectively in collaboration with designers. The integration of work design and technology enables the hospital's staff to offer additional privacy and security for patients and promote the healing environment. For most patients, the dignity of preserving their privacy during the stressful period of illness is very important and central to their healing. By utilizing technologically advanced equipments, a healing hospital provides the best health care services and speed up processes and results. Moreover, through such equipments, the process of decision-making and treatment by physicians is also accelerated.

Culture of Radical Loving Care:

Embracing a culture of radical loving care throughout the hospital is also a critical component of a healing hospital. Without the commitment to this culture of radical loving care by the employees, the development of a healing hospital is next to impossible regardless of the artwork, technology and beautiful hospital facility. This culture is a critical component to a healing hospital since it boosts patients' healing through a holistic approach that meets their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Additionally, the culture of radical loving care also reminds health care providers of the reason why they chose the health care industry.

Relation to Spirituality:

The development of a healing physical environment and a culture of radical loving care is dependent on the religious beliefs and practices of the patient. In order for the health care workers in the healing hospital to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patient, they need to be conscious of the patient's religious beliefs and practices. In most cases, physicians are usually trained to diagnose and treat diseases with little or no training regarding the spiritual aspect of the patient (McCormick, 2010). This is regardless of the fact that religious beliefs and practices are central to the lives and healing of many patients who are seeking medical care. However, it's important for physicians not to impose their beliefs on patients because of the divergent religious beliefs and practices.

Spirituality has been discovered to be one of the major factors that positively affect a patient's potential health because the body, mind and spirit work as one. Whereas the physician may have opposing religious beliefs and practices, they should allow their personal bias to hinder them from appreciating the probability that religion and religious beliefs are closely intertwined in a patient's healing. In a healing hospital, it's important for health care providers to consider the spiritual beliefs of the patients in order for them to provide a healing environment and promote a culture of loving care. When these spiritual beliefs are not taken into the consideration, patients will not feel comfortable and loved hindering their healing.

One of the Biblical passages that supports the concept of a healing hospital is Matthew 14:14 which talks about Jesus being filled with compassion for a great multitude and healing their sick. This Scripture supports the concept of a healing hospital whose critical component is the creation of a loving environment. Through compassion, health care workers are able to provide the best services which meet the patient's physical, emotional and spiritual needs. On the other hand, when patients feel loved and comfortable, they respond positively to the health care services being provided to them.

Challenges of Creating a Healing Environment:

As mentioned earlier, the creation of a healing physical environment is one of the major components of a healing hospital that promotes a patient's healing. The creation of a healing environment is quite critical particularly in the modern health care system which is in crisis because of the rising health care costs and health insurance. As a result of this crisis, many physicians are usually forced to attend to more patients daily while shortening the length of the patients' visits. Furthermore, many hospitals attempt to reduce the increasing health care costs by reducing the number of nursing staffs. Consequently, the creation of a healing environment is hindered since an excellent patient-centered care requires more physicians' time and adequate nursing staffs in the hospital.

There are several impediments and complexities of the hospital environment which hinder the creation of a healing environment. These barriers and complexities include the fact that a hospital environment need to be a place where patients can be allowed to sleep and need to be attended in order to aid the healing process. In the modern world factors such as noise and the lack of enough nursing staffs have emerged as some of the major challenges to the creation of a healing environment. Many hospitals are unable to create a healing environment because of the fact that they are short-staffed and do not adequately attend to patients needs.