Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine: Toward the Making of the Healing Practitioner

by King; Dana E

• ISBN13: 9780789011152
• ISBN10: 0789011158
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-10-26
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Understand and make use of the connections between health and religion to improve your practice! Research points to a clear link between people's religious beliefs and practices and their health. These developments have ushered in a new era in health care, in which meaning and purpose stand alongside biology as vital factors in health outcomes. Now the gap is closing between medicine and religion, as evidenced by the more than 60 US medical school courses now being given in spirituality, religion, and medicine, including courses at major teaching centers such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Case-Western, and others. Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine: Toward the Making of the Healing Practitioner promotes the integration of spirituality into medical care by exploring the connection between patient health and traditional religious beliefs and practices. This useful guide emphasizes basic, easily understood principles that will help health professionals apply current research findings linking religion, spirituality, and health. Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine does not advocate any particular set of beliefs or evangelize as it helps you integrate spiritual care into the care of patients by showing you how to: take a patient's spiritual history correlate religious beliefs with health beliefs address the individual spiritual needs of your patients choose a course of treatment that is in agreement with the religious belief of the patient incorporate appropriate clergy into treatment plans Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine describes a biopsychosocial-spiritual model that emphasizes the need to view patients not simply as biological creatures, but as physical, psychological, social, and spiritual beings if they are to be effectively treated and healed as whole persons.

Author Biography

Dana E. King, MD, is Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina

Table of Contents

About the Author	xi
Contributors	xii
Foreword	xiii
Harold G. Koenig
Acknowledgments	xvii
Integrating Religion and Spirituality into the Biopsychosocial Model	1	(12)
Dana E. King
Harold J. May
Michael E. McCullough
Dale A. Matthews
Chapter Objectives	1	(1)
Introduction	1	(1)
The Biopsychosocial Model	2	(3)
Spirituality and Mental Health	5	(1)
Spirituality and Physical Health	5	(1)
A Biopsychospiritual Model	6	(3)
Patients' Desire for Addressing Spiritual Issues in the Medical Setting	9	(1)
Spirituality in Practice	9	(1)
Summary	10	(3)
Patients and Religion	13	(8)
Chapter Objectives	13	(1)
Introduction	13	(1)
People in the United States Are Religious	13	(1)
Geography of Religion in the United States	14	(1)
Demographics	15	(1)
Health Beliefs of Selected Religious Groups	16	(3)
Summary	19	(2)
Patients and Spirituality	21	(10)
Chapter Objectives	21	(1)
Introduction	21	(1)
Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Spirituality	22	(1)
Spirituality During Illness	22	(2)
Faith in Spiritual Healing	24	(1)
Spirituality and Health	24	(2)
Spirituality and Prayer	26	(3)
Spirituality and Meditation	29	(1)
Summary	29	(1)
Questions for Discussion	29	(2)
Religion, Spirituality, and Health	31	(8)
Chapter Objectives	31	(1)
Introduction	31	(1)
Rationale for Studying Religion/Spirituality and Health	32	(2)
Religious Commitment and Mortality	34	(1)
Religious Commitment and Physiologic/Immune Factors in Health	35	(1)
Religious Commitment and Depression	36	(1)
Summary	37	(1)
Questions for Discussion	37	(2)
Health Professionals and Spirituality	39	(10)
Chapter Objectives	39	(1)
Introduction	39	(1)
Spiritual and Religious Beliefs of Health Professionals	39	(2)
The Integration Gap	41	(2)
The Spirituality Gap	43	(4)
Summary	47	(1)
Questions for Discussion	48	(1)
Assessing Patients' Spirituality: Taking a Spiritual History	49	(14)
Chapter Objectives	49	(1)
Introduction	49	(1)
Why Assess Patients' Spirituality?	49	(5)
When Should Patients' Spirituality Be Assessed?	54	(2)
How to Take a Spiritual History	56	(2)
FICA	58	(3)
MERIT	61	(1)
Summary	62	(1)
Questions for Discussion	62	(1)
Ethics of Involvement in Patients' Spirituality	63	(10)
Chapter Objectives	63	(1)
Introduction	63	(1)
Ethics of Spiritual Inquiry	64	(2)
Ethics of Referral to Chaplains	66	(2)
Ethics of Prayer with Patients	68	(1)
Summary	69	(1)
Questions for Discussion	69	(1)
Cases for Discussion	70	(3)
Chaplains and Pastoral Services	73	(12)
Chapter Objectives	73	(1)
Introduction	73	(1)
Education and Training	73	(3)
Role of the Chaplain	76	(4)
Collaborating with Chaplains in the Treatment of Patients	80	(2)
The Impact of Pastoral Care on Health	82	(2)
Summary	84	(1)
Questions for Discussion	84	(1)
Spirituality in Special Patient Populations: Dying Patients	85	(8)
Chapter Objectives	85	(1)
Introduction	85	(1)
The Role of Spirituality in End-of-Life Decisions	86	(2)
Spirituality As a Coping Mechanism	88	(2)
Belief in Miracles and an Afterlife	90	(1)
Summary	91	(1)
Questions for Discussion	91	(2)
Spirituality in Special Patient Populations: Surgical Patients	93	(6)
Chapter Objectives	93	(1)
Introduction	93	(1)
Before Surgery	93	(1)
Surgery and Prayer	94	(1)
Religious/Spiritual Factors and Surgical Recovery	95	(1)
Addressing Spiritual Concerns and Mobilizing Spiritual Resources in the Surgical Patient	95	(1)
Summary	96	(2)
Question for Discussion	98	(1)
Integrating Spirituality into Clinical Practice	99	(8)
Chapter Objectives	99	(1)
Introduction	99	(1)
Spectrum of Involvement	100	(3)
Integrating Spirituality into Health Professions Education	103	(2)
Summary	105	(2)
Notes	107	(14)
Index	121