Healing is enhanced when patients are taught to include a ‘higher power’
Healing is enhanced when patients are taught to include a higher power’
Provide opportunities for spiritual discovery rather than answers
When a person is severely ill, it often takes more than a good treatment regimen and instruction on how to follow it to restore his or her health. In addition to identifying a patient’s educational needs, care plans should identify a patient’s spiritual needs, says Gregory A. Plotnikoff, MD, MTS, medical director of the University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality and Healing in Minneapolis.
"Many people say their doctor doesn’t listen to them. Well, it’s not that the doctor isn’t listening very intently at a disease level, but people want to be heard at an illness level. What does the illness mean to them? Those are issues of meaning, and they are extremely important and very easy to overlook these days with the focus on efficiency and getting people in and out of hospitals," he explains.
Spirituality is not about answers; it is about questions. This makes it difficult to create a handout on spirituality for patients. However, it is possible to make patients aware of their spiritual side and its importance in the healing process, says Plotnikoff. They could be given information that tells them spiritual concerns often arise when a person becomes ill.
Illness itself often can create a spiritual crisis, but it also can be a time for spiritual growth. People can be guided on their spiritual journey with reflective questions such as, "what are some issues of ultimate meaning?" However, it’s important that people find their own answers, says Plotnikoff. (To learn how Parish Nursing programs help people link spirituality and physical well-being, see article on p. 51.)
Experts agree that the focus should not be on educating patients about their spirituality and its importance to their recovery and physical well-being. Instead, patients need to be given tools and opportunities for learning. The focus should be on providing an atmosphere for spiritual discovery and growth. (For more information on creating an atmosphere for spiritual discovery, see p. 52.)
Spirituality is the journey toward, or experience of, connection with the source of ultimate meaning, says Plotnikoff. It includes connection with one’s self, with others, with nature, and with a higher power. This connection often is with something greater than oneself, and which makes sense of one’s life.
Spirituality differs from religion in that it is a person’s relationship to whatever is sacred to them. Spirituality can be just about anything and doesn’t necessarily involve religion, adds Arlin Roy, MSW, CSW, pastor at North East Counseling Center in Pleasantville, NY. Religion is the content and spirituality is the process, he says.
People who feel well-connected with a source of ultimate meaning tend to take better care of themselves. Also, when in a crisis, they tend to be more proactive because they have hope and they feel stronger and actively participate in treatment decisions and their care, says Roy.
To help identify those things that are spiritually meaningful to the patient, staff should ask the patient what faith they were raised in and what form their spirituality takes now. "Often those are very different," says Roy. The question is important, because if the person is connected to a religious community, he or she may wish to speak with a religious leader; this has been shown to be beneficial.
Incorporating the patient’s spirituality also demonstrates the caregiver’s willingness to listen. When a person is in crisis, they often begin to discuss their feelings with health care workers who listen, he explains, such as a nurse, nurse’s aide, social worker, or physical therapist.
Health care workers not only need to learn to listen; they must learn to listen beneath the words, says Plotnikoff. When a person is told he or she has a terminal illness, the first question may be, "Will I die a horrible death?" Rather than give a pat answer, the health care worker must learn what "horrible" means to the patient. Perhaps it is dying disconnected from God because they feel their illness is a punishment.
Many studies show that religion has a powerful effect on health and recovery. People with a strong faith seem to get well faster. However, there is a negative side of religious beliefs, says George Fitchett, DMin, associate professor and director of research at the Department of Religion, Health, and Human Values at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago.
In the face of stress, some people feel like God has abandoned them or God is punishing them unfairly. This attitude results in a poor adjustment to a stressful situation. "One thing health educators might be sensitive to is the possibility that people may have an underdeveloped religious life or conflicted religious life that will compromise their coping with illness," says Fitchett.
Refer people with a negative religious attitude to a certified chaplain or pastor counselor, advises Fitchett. A chaplain can explore a time when this person felt their church or God let them down, or when a religious figure treated them harshly or insensitively.
Building spiritual fitness
Faith may be good for what ails a person, but it cannot be handed to someone or demanded of them. "However, health care workers can encourage the spiritual side as part of the healing process," says Plotnikoff. "They need to acknowledge that spiritual concerns can arise frequently in health care and need to be ready to affirm that it is okay to explore those issues." It may not be possible to cure a patient of cancer, but the health care system can provide the means for the patient to work through his or her feelings about the disease.
Plotnikoff defines healing as the process of becoming whole or recovering wholeness. Healing can occur in many dimensions, including the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. It is the resolution of brokenness and may or may not include curing a physical disease.
Staff need to develop their own spiritual awareness so they can recognize it in others and encourage patients to explore the spiritual side. It’s also important for staff to learn not to give the patient answers according to a personal belief system, but to let the patient find his or her own answers.
"It’s important to remember that spiritual growth can’t be handed to a patient, it has to be found. There are many different paths for that exploration, including formal religion, reading, writing in a journal, and prayer — anything that will reconnect a person to a higher power or an issue of ultimate importance," says Plotnikoff.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.