Spiritual healing in hospital settings

Hospital Healing Component

"Description of the Healing Hospitals Components and Relationship to Spirituality"

Components of healing hospitals are the radical loving care, an effective healing physical environment as well as the integration of latest technology. A healing hospital must take these three important factors into consideration to be a successful healing hospital. Essentially, a healing physical environment must be quiet to assist patients to sleep so that their cells can regenerate to accelerate the healing process. A healing hospital must implement a policy to maintain a quiet environment at all time. An example of quiet environment policy implementation is by putting silencer in a cleaning machine.

Flanders, et al., (2009) point out that physical environment contribute immensely in disease healing process. For example, linen change and hand washing reduce the puerperal fever. More importantly, a quiet physical environment creates stress free environment for patients, employees and other healthcare personnel.

A radical loving care is another important component of healing hospitals. To implement a radical loving care, all employees must join to create a care and loving environment for patients. For example, nurses, and other healthcare professionals should collaborate to deliver an effective care for patients. The concept of loving care is to assist patients to meet both their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Integrating the latest technology is very critical for a healing hospital. Integrating the latest technological development is beneficial for patients because it assists the patient's healing process. For example, the technology can assist a doctor to diagnose patients effectively without error. Moreover, the advance in technology will assist a healing hospital to deliver acute care for patients.

Despite the benefits that patients could derive from the component of a healing hospital, there is still a need to relate care with spiritual root. In the past few decades, increasingly number of hospitals is balancing their healthcare with the spirituality. Essentially, spiritual care involves serving the emotional, spiritual and social well-being of patients, and implementing radical loving, physical healing environment, and the use of technology. For example, Northern Westchester Hospital uses the HOPE spiritual healing technique to support body, mind and spirit of patients to accelerate the healing process. The HOPE tool is a spiritual technique for patient's treatment plan embracing:

H: Sources of hope, comfort, peace, strength, love and connection.

O: Organized religion.

P: Personal spiritual practice.

E: Effect of Healthcare.

The nurse uses the HOPE tool to identify spiritual needs of patients and the information assists the hospital to make appropriate healing intervention for the patients. (Anadarajah, Hight, 2001).

The root cause of many diseases is associated with stress. For example, lifetime traumas, emotional abuse, problem within the childhood family have implication on diseases and healing process. The healing of process for the stress requires the combination of spiritual healing and aesthetic physical environment. (Flanders, et al., 2009). Thus, healthcare providers are required to understand patients' spiritual beliefs to meet patients' emotional, physical, and Spiritual needs. It makes sense for healing hospitals to use a comprehensive approach to heal patients and combat diseases. For example, healing hospitals should integrates all therapies such as physical, peaceful and comforting environments, caring healthcare providers, stress reducers, and spirituality to create a healing environment. (Flanders, et al., 2009).

Puchalski, (2001) supports this argument by pointing out that healing hospitals that integrate the component care with the spirituality reduce patients mortality rates. The authors points out that combination of religious commitment with good physical environment and radical loving care reduce mortality rate within the hospital environment. More importantly, integration of technological development with the spirituality has been identified as an effective strategy to prolong life. Typically, cooperating with patients to implement their spiritual belief allow patients to cope with pain, illness as well as life stress. Spirituality assists patients to have better quality of life. Nurses can facilitate patients' spiritual practices by "offering themselves to pray together with them if they feel at ease to do this." (Nascimento, et al. 2010 p440 ).

Additionally, integration of spiritual commitment with other component of healthcare can assist patients to achieve a speedy recovery from illness. For example, cancer patients who participate in religious activities are able to achieve less anxiety, "higher level of self-esteem," as well as fewer health worries. (Puchalski, 2001 p353 ). Essentially, people who are free from worries tend to achieve better health outcomes. For example, at NHS Birmingham hospital in the UK, a patient was still suffering from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) after the traditional treatment. Thus, the hospital offered the spiritual healing to the patient to heal the patient.

However, integrating the healthcare components with spirituality for healing can be challenging. Typically, healthcare professionals offer traditional healthcare have little or no training with reference to the spiritual healings, thus, a hospital is required to overcome these barriers to enhance effective healthcare approach.

Challenges to Create a Healing Environment

Nascimento, et al. (2010) argue that the role of healthcare professionals is to assist patients to fulfill their spirituality to achieve speedy recovery. However, many healthcare professionals do not belief in the spiritual healing despite the widespread of acknowledgement for the need for the spiritual healthcare. Typically, majority of healthcare professionals do not value the perception of spiritual care and incorporating this care in a clinical practice is challenging.

Another challenge is that many patients are used to the traditional hospital treatment, and it could be hard for patients to turn to the healing hospital all of a sudden. Overcome these challenges may involve a lot publicity to convince people about the benefits of spiritual healing.

Moreover, traditional hospitals are used to offer patients' treatments with drug and technology, thus, many patients may unable to accept the holistic treatment because many patients are already accustomed with the conventional drugs and technology for health treatment.

Typically, implementation of spiritual healthcare delivery is challenging for healthcare professionals because majority of them do not possess the skills to integrate spirituality healing which is an essential component healthcare within the hospital environment. Among the challenges listed is lack of skills to fulfill the family spiritual beliefs. Despite the challenge that healing hospital might face within a hospital environment, hospitals can overcome these challenges by offering required training for their healthcare professionals.

Conflict of religion is another barrier to create an effective healing environment. Many healthcare professionals are Christians and it will be challenging to share their spiritual belief with Muslims and Hindus. Moreover, there are still wide differences of spiritual beliefs among Christians making the integration of spiritual healing to be challenging.

Policy of hospitals is another challenge that could lead to barriers in creating an effective healing environment. For example, the management might not support creating a holistic healing environment, which might dampen its implementation.

Biblical Parable or Passage supporting the Healing Hospital Concept

Several biblical passages support the concept of healing hospital. Examples are: