Spirituality in Healthcare Understanding Spirituality

Spirituality in Healthcare

Understanding spirituality in healthcare environments is important for any professional in the healthcare industry, simply because knowledge translates into power, and well-informed, well-trained, alert talent in healthcare settings can save lives and help individuals become healthy by relying on more than medications and personal attention. This paper delves into the reasons for linking spirituality with healthcare, and using appropriate spiritual tools when the patients that nurses, doctors and others in the field care for need this support. Moreover, studies show that people with strong spiritual believes actually heal faster, hence, competent, compassionate healthcare professionals certainly need to be informed and active in spirituality vis-a-vis healthcare settings.

ONE (a). What is spirituality and why is it important in healthcare settings? According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, spirituality is a belief in a power far greater than humans can imagine; spirituality is a sense and an awareness that humans are connected to the world and all its creatures. "It's the way you find meaning, hope, comfort, and inner peace in your life" (Ehrlich, 2011, p. 1). Hence, since spirituality is a greater power than religion per se, and because spirituality links alert humans with their physical and metaphysical world, this paper provides relevant information about those concepts.

TWO -- Different Traditions. An article in the Journal of Clinical Nursing (Pesut, et al., 2008, p. 2804) discusses historical and social traditions and contexts for the use of spirituality in nursing. First, Pesut mentions "common themes" through the years, including: "meaning, purpose, hope, connectedness, relationship, transcendence, existential experiences and power/force/energy" (2804). Spirituality is frequently described as "…a journey of lived experience, characterized by a greater sense of peace, meaning, purpose and connectedness" (Pesut, 2804).

Tradition #1: The historical traditions of spirituality begin with the Enlightenment, when religion, in particular Christianity, had a very powerful role in the workings of the Western world. The claims that religious dogma held at that time -- juxtaposed with the Enlightenment's emphasis on the "pre-eminence of reason" -- were actually challenged. In other words, the Enlightenment challenged organized religion's dogmas as to their level of truth and authority, Pesut explains (2804). Because of the emergence of spirituality (with its origins in the Enlightenment) and the challenge to the authority of the church, "…religion in the Western world lost much of its social and political authority" (Pesut, 2804).

In fact, because of the Enlightenment, the assumption that the world was "essentially homogeneous in nature" and governed by the laws of nature, theology became a kind of science searching for God, Pesut explains (2805). Reason dominated religions dialogue. Hence, God became a "problem" that needed studying, and moreover organized religion became "suspect as a bearer of revealed truths about God" (Pesut, 2805). Influential thinkers like Freud, Durkheim, Max Weber and Karl Marx suggested that religion would fade away gradually as the industrial age emerged.

Tradition #2: In postmodern spirituality, reason lost some of its glow, Pesut asserts on page 2805. Part of the rejection of Enlightenment's promotion of reason was due to the bloody world wars, the uncertain and in many cases deteriorating social conditions in the world, and the economic uncertainty. People just wanted to hang on to something that would help them "navigate life's challenges in a meaningful way," Pesut continues (2805). Some argued that this period was the age of "un-enlightenment" where "mystics and fundamentalists" promoted "cults, quackery, gurus, irrational panic, moral confusion and an epidemic of gibberish" (Pesut, 2805).

Tradition #3: Given that there has been a resurgence of organized religion (77% of the population in the world now worship Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shinto, Sikhism or Jainism) everywhere but in Canada, the U.S. And the UK, the explanation from Pesut is that Westerners perceive that religious institutions treat individuals as "commodities" while "failing to address the needs of the populace" (2806).

Hence, spiritualism has taken a more important role. Aptly, Pesut notes that "militant fundamentalism" -- the kind of Christianity that evangelicals embrace which unites political ideology with religious dogma, for example, fundamentalists disavow evolution in favor of creationism, and vote for conservatives that promise to nix Roe v. Wade -- in Northern societies has created "tensions in the forefront of public concern" (2806). Given a society that is disenchanted with the "ideological and political aspects of religion" the answer would be to embrace the kind of spiritualism that works effectively for healthcare professionals, Pesut continues, because it rejects the social influence of religious dogma and sets the healthcare professional free to interact on a higher level with patients.

Tradition #4: In the twenty-first century, a spirituality that seems ideally suited for healthcare environments has emerged, Pesut explains (2807). The process of spiritual self-help has gained "legitimacy through wisdom traditions" and moreover, it acts to enhance a healthcare worker's "personal power and health" which in turn allows greater, more meaningful care of the patient. A nurse who is emotionally and spiritually healthy is in a better position to relate to the individual spirituality -- no matter what form it takes -- of the patient.

TWO (a). There are definite advantages to becoming familiar with patients' spirituality, and those include two insights: a) Studies show that religious convictions affect the decisions of healthcare professionals. While a Jehovah's Witness family may not want the doctor to withdraw the support of a ventilator from their dying grandfather, given that a "miracle" still could happen, a chaplain well-versed in spirituality could convince them that allowing grandfather to have "a peaceful death" and "union with God" was in itself a miracle (Puchalski, 2001, p. 354); b) a doctor led a family in prayer around the family member, and the prayer wasn't just for a miracle, but the prayer specifically asked God for strength in dealing with this person's ultimate demise (Puchalski, 354).

TWO (b). Spiritually sensitive care can be given by "listening" first to the fears and hopes and dreams of the patient; also, obtaining the spiritual history of the patient is important; involving chaplains; being "fully attentive" to the patient's spiritual beliefs; and "incorporating spiritual practices" that are appropriate to that patient (Puchalski, 355).

TWO (c). Spiritual competence cannot be achieved when a "…shallow hit-and-run approach" is employed; while it's basic to teach a nurse how to use email, that nurse may need "mentoring" in order to achieve a "holistic spiritual" competency (Raffay, 2010, p. 607).