Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine

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.

Contents - About the Author - Contributors - Foreword - Acknowledgments - Chapter 1. Integrating Religion and Spirituality into the Biopsychosocial Model - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - The Biopsychosocial Model - Spirituality and Mental Health - Spirituality and Physical Health - A Biopsychospiritual Model - Patients' Desire for Addressing Spiritual Issues in the Medical Setting - Spirituality in Practice - Summary - Chapter 2. Patients and Religion - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - People in the United States Are Religious - Geography of Religion in the United States - Demographics - Health Beliefs of Selected Religious Groups - Summary - Chapter 3. Patients and Spirituality - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Spirituality - Spirituality During Illness - Faith in Spiritual Healing - Spirituality and Health - Spirituality and Prayer - Spirituality and Meditation - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Chapter 4. Religion, Spirituality, and Health - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Rationale for Studying Religion/Spirituality and Health - Religious Commitment and Mortality - Religious Commitment and Physiologic/Immune Factors in Health - Religious Commitment and Depression - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Chapter 5. Health Professionals and Spirituality - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Spiritual and Religious Beliefs of Health Professionals - The Integration Gap - The Spirituality Gap - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Chapter 6. Assessing Patients' Spirituality--Taking a Spiritual History - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Why Assess Patients' Spirituality? - When Should Patients' Spirituality Be Assessed? - How to Take a Spiritual History - FICA - MERIT - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Chapter 7. Ethics of Involvement in Patients' Spirituality - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Ethics of Spiritual Inquiry - Ethics of Referral of Chaplains - Ethics of Prayer with Patients - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Cases for Discussion - Chapter 8. Chaplains and Pastoral Services - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Education and Training - Role of the Chaplain - Collaborating with Chaplains in the Treatment of Patients - The Impact of Pastoral Care on Health - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Chapter 9. Spirituality in Special Patient Populations: Dying Patients - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - The Role of Spirituality in End-of-Life Decisions - Spirituality As a Coping Mechanism - Belief in Miracles and an Afterlife - Summary - Questions for Discussion - Chapter 10. Spirituality in Special Patient Populations: Surgical Patients - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Before Surgery - Surgery and Prayer - Religious/Spiritual Factors and Surgical Recovery - Addressing Spiritual Concerns and Mobilizing Spiritual Resources in the Surgical Patient - Summary - Question for Discussion - Chapter 11. Integrating Spirituality into Clinical Practice - Chapter Objectives - Introduction - Spectrum of Involvement - Integrating Spirituality into Health Professions Education - Summary - Notes - Index - Reference Notes Included