PHI 413 Topic 5 DQ 2
DQ When it comes to facilitating spiritual care for patients with worldviews different from your own, what are your strengths and weaknesses?
Spiritual care is an essential part of the healing process for every human being physically, mentally, and emotionally. During my patient rounds, I might encounter patients with different worldviews or religions. It is somehow of a challenge for me when I have a patient with a different worldview than mine due to my lack of knowledge about other religions. However, the best way to approach those situations is to acknowledge other people’s beliefs, be active listener, provide support and facilitate communication with pastoral care. As a healthcare professional, it is important to learn about different religions to understand their beliefs and traditions, but it is most important to empathize and provide care with love and respect for every human being because humans are creatures of God (Hoehner, 2020).
The importance of spiritual care in patient care and the effectiveness of that treatment can influence how patients view their sickness. I believe that knowledge is my greatest area for improvement when it comes to spiritual care. Aside from Christianity, I don’t really know much about other religions, thus it would be simple for me to unintentionally say or do something that could be insulting or insensitive since I simply do not know how to handle certain situations. My willingness to “live and let live”—the idea that as long as you aren’t harming anyone else, you can do or believe whatever you want—is something I would consider to be a strength. I like to think that I am generally impartial when it comes to treating others fairly, but I am aware that I have a few minor imperfections that I need to improve.
I would want to receive as much information about my alternatives from my doctor and a second, maybe even a third opinion if I were a patient in a scenario where I had to make a difficult decision. Additionally, I would seek advice from my parents, my husband, and my siblings in an effort to reach a choice. And I would spend the entire time in prayer, seeking God’s guidance. Although I personally would give a lot of weight to other people’s ideas, I believe that as the patient, I should have the last say in what happens, even if my choice differs from what everyone else suggests. I would hope that my family could make a wise choice if I were unable to do so, and I believe that my husband should have the final say when it comes to making medical decisions.
I believe that understanding about all the many religious beliefs is a deficit we all have as healthcare professionals. If we take the time to do a spiritual evaluation and ask the right questions, we are gradually expanding our worldview understanding. If I were to make a challenging medical decision, I would also want my spouse, parents, and sisters present.
The total health and support of the patient can greatly benefit from spiritual treatment. Before creating a plan of treatment for these
patients, we must evaluate their spiritual requirements, wants, and willingness to receive spiritual care. I believe I am strong in the areas of kindness, openness, and education, but I could stand to learn more about other religions. In addition to being willing to teach patients about their health, I also enjoy listening to them and determining their overall needs. It is critical for us as healthcare professionals to dig deep and provide the patients with the care they require and deserve since some patients need things that we are ignorant of because they do not manifest physically.
If ethical choices needed to be made regarding my personal care, I would prefer to, to the best of my ability, make those choices. My family is aware of my objectives and preferences, so they would be able to successfully decide how to care for me if I am not. The fact that we have all written out our healthcare desires for one another has helped to give them direction, which has made the challenging situations our family has encountered a little more straightforward. Making decisions is difficult no matter the circumstance, but it is especially challenging when it comes to healthcare. Having made the decision beforehand makes things lot simpler if a difficult situation arises.
K. Evans (2020). Practice Dignity: A Guide to Christian Values and Healthcare Decision Making. the following link: https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi413v/practicing-dignity-an-introduction-to-christian-values-and-decision-making- in-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/5
Regardless of their beliefs, I am able to care for every patient. I provide my patients with a different worldview with the compassionate care they merit when it comes to enabling spiritual treatment. I have never experienced issues in my professional life as a result of opposing worldviews. I listened as a patient detailed her Jehovah’s Witness beliefs, which I thought to be quite fascinating. Although I don’t subscribe to the Jehovah’s Witness worldview, I kept listening to her because she needed assurance that she was in capable hands and because I was curious about both her health and her worldview beliefs. The holistic approach to care that we all strive for in the healthcare context, caring for the full person, body, mind, and spirit, includes treating a patient’s spirituality. Since spirituality has an impact on all element of a person’s life, providing emotional and spiritual support should be a top priority for all medical professionals. (Evans, 2020)
In the form of a health care directive, I would have the final say in my medical choices. I would inform my family of my end-of-life choices. My sister would be the one who makes my moral judgments. She works in the medical industry and would respect the choices I made. She would find this difficult, but she would know that she was acting in my best interests and that her choice was the right one.
Reference
K. Evans (2020). Intervention, moral judgment, and spiritual guidance. Using dignity: An introduction to Christian principles and healthcare decision-making. https://lc.gcumedia.com/phi413v/practicing-dignity-an-introduction-to-christian-values-and-decision-making-in-health-care/v1.1/#/chapter/5
I totally agree with your contribution and also move the same motion that policies concerning spiritual care need to be standardized. I observed a very touching moment when a certain provider was in a patient’s room to discuss change of advance directives for a deteriorating patient. The patient’s family requested to pray before they could start their deliberations but the health care provider was not comfortable to be in the room as they prayed. This left me as the nurse to be with the family while the provider stepped out of the room and was only ready to be back after the prayer was done, because the provider could not believe in praying. A lack of standardization in the conceptualization and assessment of spiritual care causes challenges in reviewing, however several themes do emerge. policies are standardized, the quality of spiritual care will be enhanced (Harrad et al.,2019).
Reference:
Harrad,R., Cosentino,C., Keasley, R., & Sulla, F. Spiritual care in nursing: an overview of the measures used to assess spiritual care provision and related factors amongst nurses. Acta Biomed. 2019 Mar 28;90(4-S):44-55. doi: 10.23750/abm.v90i4-S.8300.