Spirituality in Health Care - Essay Example

Spirituality in Health Care Spirituality within the realm of healthcare is a very delicate Ultimately, the role of the healthcare professional is to administer to the physical and psychological help of patient. Maximizing these two aspects of health and promoting a better quality of life for the patient is the ultimate expectation and job requirements for the healthcare professional. As a means of understanding this to a more effective degree, the following analysis will discuss the role that spirituality plays in helping to address this primary task. As such, for purposes of this analysis, the author will focus specifically upon the realm of the way in which spirituality can play a role in attending to the needs of the patient, the way in which a clear delineation between a given set of beliefs and/or proselytize nation must be separated from spirituality, and the innate importance of being continually cognizant and aware/appreciative of different beliefs and the different multicultural approaches to spirituality that the patients might have. Only thorough exemplification and examination of these topics will give more effective understanding of how spirituality can be engaged within the realm of healthcare provision. The following analysis will provide a brief introduction into the topic as well as discussing the way in which three separate faiths integrate with a comparative approach to healthcare. As such, the three faiths which will be referenced are as follows: Buddhist, Shinto, and Baha’i. Whereas the past several decades have noted a deviation from any form of spirituality or spiritual appreciation with regards to the provision of healthcare, recent scholarship has noted that those individuals who retain a form of belief and/or spirituality invariably respond more vigorously to two different treatments and ultimately have a better prognosis than their non-believing counterparts. With this being understood, research and analysis into the field of healthcare have taken a somewhat different and more mellow approach with regards to the degree and extent to which spirituality can and should be incorporated into the treatment plan of individuals. However, with that being said, it must be understood that spirituality is still a very delicate topic due to the fact that it does not exist, nor is represented, categorically among each and every patient that seeks a level of treatment (Reimer-Kirkham et al. 203). Instead, spirituality is a highly personal component of an individual’s worldview. As such, it is the ultimate role of the healthcare provider to be cognizant of this and not to seek to foster any particular type of approach to spirituality. Instead, merely listening and being aware of any needs/beliefs that the patient might represent to the healthcare provider is a preliminary and essential task. In this way, the first faith to be discussed, Buddhism, it must be understood that the Buddhist approach to healthcare provision is ultimately quite depressing with regards to the way in which care and treatment can be provided. From the Buddhist interpretation, even the highest form of care can only be viewed from the standpoint that death can merely be delayed and suffering itself should not necessarily be sought to be averted in and of itself due to the fact that it has an innate potential for purification and the ability to allow the individual to come to a greater appreciation for life and an escalation towards the state of nirvana. All of this of course springs from the understanding that Buddhism holds as a tacit truth that suffering is a part of life and as such should be accepted without actively seeking to diminish it. With that being said, it is of vital importance that healthcare provider is not a means anyway, or at any time, to seek to promote a particular worldview or proselytize their own belief system to the patient. This is of course due to the fact that this represents a clear breach of professionalism and an overstepping of the boundaries in the patient - caregiver relationship. The individual who is seeking care is already in a position of vulnerability and should not be subject to the advances of a particular worldview or spiritual approach that they might not necessarily appreciate or believe in. Naturally, this particular elaboration upon the connection between spirituality and health is perhaps the one component that is involved the most over the past several decades. When one briefly reviews healthcare history, they rapidly come to an understanding of the fact that even as little as 4 to 5 decades past, individuals were regularly counseled by their healthcare providers and encouraged to integrate with a particular worldview; either as a means of getting well sooner, experiencing at better quality of life, or preparing themselves for the eventuality of a near death. However, as the healthcare profession has grown and evolved into a more multicultural and appreciated entity, it has come to be realized that seeking to promote any particular worldview, merely because the healthcare provider himself/herself integrates with it, is an ineffective and ultimately on ethical approach. Shintoism takes a slightly different approach. Due to the fact that Shintoism places form and a respect for one’s elders above many other forms of religious observation, Shintoism promotes an understanding that ensuring form and function within the space of the individual receiving care should be maximized to promote the greatest utility. Moreover, thoughtful levels of reminiscence for one’s elders and tributes in the form of visits to shrines may be helpful towards benefitting the individual’s overall health. Even though a belief in the intervention and power of one’s relatives is such a profound component, the provision of medical care still occupies a powerful role within Shintoist beliefs as the provision of medical care itself is considered neutral; providing that the workings of the spirit and the greater power of ancestral prayers can tip the balance in favor of the approach that is taken. As such, one of the final determinants through which spirituality must be constrained within the world of healthcare provision is with respect to the healthcare provider being continually cognizant, appreciative, and aware of different beliefs. This underscores the innate differential between spirituality and belief systems. An individual can be spiritual with a joint understanding of their patients without promoting a particular set of beliefs and/or a particular worldview with regards to morality and ethics. In such a case, a perfect exemplification of this could be a spiritually cognizant healthcare provider, who might happen to be a Catholic by tradition, counseling and providing a level of advice and encouragement to a patient of a Muslim tradition. This may seem as something of an impossibility upon a cursory analysis; however, if done in a careful and tactful manner, mindful and attentive to observe the prior illustrations of best practice that had been analyzed within this brief paper, the result can be beneficial to both the healthcare provider and the individual patient. Of all of the faiths that have thus far been discussed, it is the Bahai faith that places the highest level of spiritual emphasis on prolonging life and seeking ameliorate suffering as one of its primary goals. As such, the Baha’i faith has oftentimes been compared to a fusion religion due to the fact that it incorporates many of the well known facets of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Nevertheless, the strict moral dictum that life should be celebrated and that suffering should be reduced factors in prominently to the way in which practitioners of this faith engage with such a moral mandate. Moreover, the Baha’i faith is one of the three that has thus far been listed that engages in church sponsored healthcare clinics as a functional part of their global ministry; seeing the amelioration of suffering as a primary goal that those seeking enlightenment and the possibility of paradise in the afterlife must engage in by very nature. A potential area for conflict that has recently come to a level of prominence is with respect to the way in which spiritual/ethical conflict can be exhibited between the healthcare provider and patient. A prime example of this would of course be with respect to a healthcare provider that espouses a particular religious tradition that does not allow for, nor promote, abortion. Cases have been illustrated within the recent past in which even in situations that the mother’s life may be in particular danger, a physician, or healthcare provider, is not only reticent, but outright refuses to perform an abortion. Other examples with regards to abortion can include a recent case in which a pharmacist refused to fill a prescription for a plan B contraceptive that he considered to be an abortive drugs. Naturally, abortion represents only a small fraction and/or percentage of the situations in which a particular belief system and/or level of spirituality can impact upon the doctor/healthcare provider and patient relationship. Nevertheless, rather than providing a stoppage in the delivery of healthcare, recent analysis and scholarship of this particular ethical/moral quandary illustrate the fact that it is the responsibility of the individual healthcare provider who has a particular ethical issue with performing a given function or task to seek out a partner or an additional healthcare provider; so that a decision with regards to a particular treatment, approach, or procedure can effectively be made without the bias of a particular worldview being infringed. With that being said, it must also be understood that bias with regards to a particular form of healthcare procedure and a level of spirituality within the patient can also be an issue. A prime example of this might be with regards a Jehovah’s Witness who does not wish to have any type of blood transfusion; regardless of whether or not their life might depend upon receiving such a transfusion. Instances occurred in the past when a Jehovah’s Witness specified to their healthcare provider that even though they were aware of the fact that a given surgery and/or procedure might require a blood transfusion, they outright refuse this due to the fact that they believe that it would be better to do without the transfusion, and possibly die, then to infringe upon their own belief system. Yet, healthcare providers and surgeons, in the past, although being aware of this worldview and delineation of care, have denied the right of patient choice and decided that the possibility of saving a life, regardless of the “narrow mindedness” of the patient worldview, is ultimately a more ethical and moral choice then choosing to fulfill it. Obviously, the situation that has been represented is rare and is a difficult moral and ethical choice for the physician/healthcare provider; due to the fact that it incorporates a level of spirituality and appreciation for a belief system over the ethics and morality that is instilled within the healthcare provider/position as a function of their training and the Hippocratic oath. From the information that has thus far been presented, it is the firm belief of this particular student that spirituality has a direct level of importance with regards to helping the individual being cognizant, appreciative and aware of different beliefs that a given individual might espouse is necessary towards providing the highest quality of health care in each and every situation. However, awareness in and of itself is not enough to counter the situations that have thus far been elaborated on. Rather, it should be the role and goal of the healthcare provider to focus upon the way in which spirituality can be utilized as a means of improving the healthcare outcome of the individual patient; rather than used as a means of proving a particular approach, prosthletizing a particular worldview, or merely passing time in conversation. Although the prescriptions for the way that spirituality can and should be utilized within the field of healthcare have herein been denoted, it must be understood that it is highly likely that these definitions will morph and evolve as time goes on and a more nuanced understanding of the way in which these two factors relate to one another is more appropriately understood. Work Cited Reimer-Kirkham, S., S. Sharma, B. Pesut, R. Sawatzky, H. Meyerhoff, and M. Cochrane. "Sacred Spaces In Public Places: Religious And Spiritual Plurality In Health Care." Nursing Inquiry 19.3 (2012): 202-212. CINAHL Complete. Web. 25 Sept. 2013. Read More