Psychology Today: Why Spirituality Matters in Medicine
“Spirituality plays a role in both health and illness for many.
Spirituality and medicine have a long, intertwined, history. The very emergence of hospitals in the West arose in part out of the hospitality and care provided by monasteries. Many hospitals have since been founded by religious institutions, and much of medical care throughout the world is still provided by religious hospitals and medical mission efforts.
Religious and spiritual life and community provide an important health resource for many people throughout the world. And their spiritual and religious beliefs shape many people’s medical decisions.
And yet, over the past century, we have also seen an increasing division between medicine and spirituality. Certain aspects of medical care have focused more on technology and on disease, than on the person. In many clinical settings, spiritual care is provided very infrequently, even in end-of-life contexts. Most clinicians report having received no training in providing spiritual care. The situation today in the West is very different than it has been throughout much of the past.
Based on the extensive review of the literature, and an evaluation of the evidence, the expert consensus panel concluded that, for serious illness, there was strong empirical support for several findings:
1. Spirituality is important for most patients.
2. Spiritual needs are common.
3. Spiritual care is frequently desired by patients.
4. Spiritual needs are infrequently addressed in medical care.
5. Spirituality can play a role in medical decision-making.
6. Spiritual care is infrequent in medical care.
7. Unaddressed spiritual needs are associated with poorer patient quality of life.
8. Provision of spiritual care is associated with better patient end-of-life outcomes.
The panel furthermore concluded that, for health outcomes, there was strong evidence that religious service attendance was associated with lower mortality risk; less smoking, alcohol, and drug use; better mental health; better quality of life, and fewer subsequent depressive symptoms.“
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#Medicine #Health #Spirituality
💬 Do you think health care providers should also get training in providing spiritual care?
@globalBraid3744 kind of yes
i think it's more about being compassionate towards patients
i find doctors are so desensitized or something along those lines that they come off as rather cold and stand offish
being sick or hospitalised or whatever is quite stressful and traumatic
the person responsible for your wellbeing not seeming to care makes things worse
@zealousGrace5023
I totally agree! Compassion makes a strong difference.
@globalBraid3744 yup!^_^
@zealousGrace5023 Yeah I think I agree with your point of view. I don't think doctors should be trained per se, but they definitely need to be able to have good bedside manner. There's a huge lacking of that nowadays unfortunately. ):
@fruityPond7887 yeah theres more people in the field for the money rather than for the sake of helping people
@zealousGrace5023 Oh definitely. People believe that just because they are smart and are able to pass medical school that they will be good doctors. What they don't realize is that it takes both smarts and the ability to work with people to be a good doctor! If you don't have the bedside manners, then I don't think someone is cut out to be a doctor.
@fruityPond7887
This is so true! I find that many doctors take more patients than they can manage and then they do not really listen to what the individual truly needs but they quickly want to be done to call in the following patient.
@globalBraid3744 Exactly!! I've definitely had that before. It's not fair to the patients because they just automatically get diagnosed with the most common thing that fits all the symptoms. It's really a shame.
@fruityPond7887 yes exactly
it's rather annoying too
@globalBraid3744
I think the setting of treatment is really important in terms of medicine. You can give the most effective scientific drug cocktail or surgery to a patient but they may still come out of it feeling terrible and as if their issue isn't solved. Medicine is as much as the compassionate and interpersonal as it is about the medicine and science. It's easy to forget that.
@sunnyWriting4806
This is so true! I also think that the patient's expectations also matter in the treatment, as shown by a placebo effect.
@globalBraid3744 I would rather see less religion out of healthcare, but that's because of how they were set up historically here and the lingering effects.
There are essentially 2 groupings of hospitals here, 1 falls under the healthcare system, the other is catholic. I find the catholic ones a bit confusing to describe, as they still fall within the public system. Many people don't even realize the current religious connection and I think just assume the names are historically based (as some are very obvious, ie. nuns in the name of the hospital). In actual practice, it's not just a naming thing plus some crosses around the hospital, these hospitals are still run under Catholic values. Problems arise when someone needs an abortion service or requests MAID. They need to be transferred to another hospital, as the Catholic ones do not allow for this, and particularly for MAID that transfer can be difficult for the individual and upsetting for their loved ones At one point a patient had to leave the property where they were getting care to have their assessment done on the sidewalk, on public property of the city.
That isn't to say I am against spirituality in hospitals or healthcare, but it needs to be patient centered, rather than system determined. In general I think healthcare needs to be more respectful of autonomy and choices.
@AffyAvo
These are very good points you bring up!
I also had the opinion that religion should go out of medicine, but with time I noticed how healing it can be for some people. I think it is best when the person can choose what they prefer because a strongly empirical person might not be satisfied with catholic (or other religion-bound care) and a strong believer might not be satisfied with the empirical approach in normal hospitals.
You described it well - it needs to be patient-centered and allow for more autonomy.
No, doctors should not get training to provide spiritual care. Because just as they assume authority over matters of the physical, before long they’ll start believing they really are God.
@littleKiwi9399
Thank you for joining the discussion :)
@littleKiwi9399 I agree, but I think doctors could get a bit more training on awareness in general and allow for others to offer appropriate support, be it an area for smudging, appropriate uninterrupted time to meditate, allowing a religious leader to lead a prayer, etc.