The Importance of Considering Spiritual Beliefs in Healthcare Strategies

What is your spiritual perspective on healing?

The rapid form of globalization and modernization of the present society clearly provides evidence of the fact that today’s communities have turned multicultural.  The demographic of these societies are ever changing and the population are also constantly increasing.  Thus keeping that in mind the provision of efficient modes of healthcare has become a very pressing issue.  However, just procuring facilities to provide health care services is not enough.  Other that factors such as socioeconomic strengths and medical conditions of the patients, it is also important to consider their spiritual beliefs while deciding their health care strategies.  For coming up with effective forms of treatment, it is important for the health care service providers to come up with effective modes of open communication and interaction. The use of interpersonal skills in important in this situations as it helps in the process of building up trust in between the service provider and the patient (Shea, Wynyard & Lionis, 2014). This also provides an opportunity to the health care provider to come to terms with the cultural differences with special preference to the patient’s religious beliefs.  It is very important for the service provider to know whether or not the patient has certain reservation regarding any medical practices so that their beliefs do not interfere with the treatment plan.  A very good example of this is the individuals who consider themselves to be Jehovah ’s Witness (Juettner, 2006).  They are all mandated to carry identification of their religious beliefs and this is considered extremely important for the medical practioners since it is mandatory for these believers to not take in any form of blood transfusion as part of their treatment or during any other time in life.  Thus any procedures that need to be conducted have to be bloodless or in critical circumstances permission need to be granted from the patient’s family.  As much as the above example construed how different religious beliefs are from science and medicine, there remains another side to the story wherein the term spiritual healing comes into play. Our engagement with the spiritual dimension pertaining to life gets constituted as a very essential component that associates itself directly to good health and wellbeing.  Given the modern times, it might be stated that the role played by spirituality and sometimes the religion that a person belongs to in terms of medicine tends to encompass certain practices such as meditations, prayer groups, healing prayers, evocation of forgiveness, pastoral counselling and the likes (Griffith, 2009).   Sometimes it may also include practices such as looking for meaning in illness, engaging in the mystery pertaining to end of life care and death, dealing with compassion and believing in miracles and this not just constitute the patient but also the families and the health practitioners of the patients.

The chosen religions for this assignment are Christianity and Buddhism. From the perspective of each and every religion, the philosophy behind providing care services may be compared as well as contrasted to the Christian perspective taking into account my individual viewpoint as a researcher.  I have tried to take into account the spiritual perspective along with the associated critical components that are part of the healing process of both of these religions.  

Christianity and Spiritual Healing

Buddhism is considered to be a religion that had its origins in India and leads way back into the 6^th century BC.  It constitutes a movement of spiritual individuals who followed the footsteps and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama who later becomes famous as the Lord Buddha (Reynolds & Carbine, 2000). As per the teachings of Buddhism, a follower perceives life as an inevitable process that stars with births includes ageing, illness and finally culminates in death.   They believe that the main cause for all diseases happens to be rooted in their internal being rather than being projected externally (DemieÌÂville & Tatz, 2004). In this context it is important to understand what Buddhist mean when they talk about the mind.  For the Buddhists, the mind is a non physical being.  It is shapeless, formless, colourless and also genderless.  The mind has cognizant abilities and its basic nature is pure pervasive and limitless.  The Buddhists believe that sickness is first created in the in mind as such as it remains to be the creator of all problems,  thus the cause f the diseases is said to be internal rather than external  

Consequently, the process of healing is achieved for them with the help of positive thoughts that culminates in an individual’s positive actions which keeps them engaged and leads to their healing.  It is a very strong belief of the Buddhists that all forms of happiness and suffering are directly related to an individual’s karma.  Thus if a person is devoid of any negative karma then the individual is not suppose to have fallen sick.  However, the complete lack of negative karma can only be achieved with the help of constant awareness and being aware of all forms of bodily actions, thoughts, speech and mind. Thus as per Buddhism, the philosophy of being healthy remains to be an individual responsibility since being in possession of a health mind and clean karma will effectively lead to a healthy body.  Buddhism also asserts the fact that for the purpose of lasting healing to occur, one has to heal both the current diseases along with the cause of the diseases that finds its root in the mind (Hawter, 1995).  Unless this is done the problem will continue to occur all over again.  To heal the mind of its illnesses, it is imperative to eliminate all the negative though processes along with their imprints. Buddhist medicines are usually herbal in nature. But it is unique considering the process it undergoes while being prepared.  Preparation of these medicines includes extensive use of mantras and prayers which are said to make the medicines more powerful and effective.  They believe that compassion is a great healing power.  Meditation and visualizations is also a very important tool used in Buddhist healing rituals (Fraser, 2014). This is the same as the Christian form of healing wherein an individual is asked to visualize the light as an embodiment of Jesus.  

As per the Christian beliefs spiritual healing is concerned, they try to take into account the art of channelling the energy from God to an individual who needs the process of healing.  The channel is actually another individual but the healing power comes straight from God. The diseases and ailments that an individual suffers from are a result of their diseases are derived from sins and wrongdoing. However, it is important to understand that using a channel for the healing process may not be a success every time (Mark 11:18) just the way a patient wants since sometimes healing comes in the form of empowerment which an individual receives when they learns to cope with their problem (Pursuingthetruth, 2010). Notwithstanding this, the use of prayer is also considered to be an effective form of healing.  In comparison to my personal beliefs, I may say that this is in a way true since I personally believe that God punishes all individuals for their sins and sickness is a form of punishment for our wrongdoing.  Seeking forgiveness from god leads to healing as does indulging in no wrong acts and being just and kind to others around us. An individual’s good actions define how they are going to be. 

Thus it can be noticed that there are major similarities in between the beliefs of Christian spiritual healing and Buddhist spiritual healing since the main component of both is healing through prayers. Another similarity lies in the fact that atoning for the sins is believed to be a route to healing in both these religions though maintenance of good health remains to be a personal responsibility in case of Buddhism.   It is quite interesting to realise that even though the religions in themselves are so diverse, there are common points of similarity in between the two.  

It is thus profound that when it comes to understanding the religious beliefs of the patients, which are often different from those of the health care service providers, respect is essential.  Also when a health care providers takes into account the religious sentiments of the patients and caters to them respectfully, they earn the trust of the patient and also their gratitude.  This helps in strengthening the patient doctor relationship which is essential when providing services and healing the patient (Vaughn et al., 2009) .  

In conclusion thus it may be stated that all health care service providers need to gather knowledge and respect the individual religious beliefs of their patients when it comes to spirituality and the healing process. Every religion is unique and their followers cater to certain practices based on which they lead their lives and these also include norms, values traditions and practices.  Most importantly, being service providers they need to keep an open mind and ensure that they are not being presumptuous in front of their patient since it might hurt their sentiments.  Most importantly as stated by Jonston (1990) physicians and health care service providers need to ensure that sensitive care is a part of their practices ad this term incorporates the basic values pertaining to religious diversity and individual freedom. 

References

DemieÌÂville, P., & Tatz, M. (2004). Buddhism and healing (10th ed.). Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

Fraser, A. (2014). The healing power of meditation.

Griffith, K. J. (2009). The Religious Aspects of Nursing Care. Vancouver, Canada: s.n.

Hawter, V. P. (1995). Healing: A Tibetan Buddhist Perspective. s.n: s.l. Retrieved April 1 2015, from https://www.buddhanet.net/tib_heal.htm

Johnston, C. (1990). Spiritual Aspects of Palliative Cancer Care. s.n.

Juettner, M. (2006). Jehovah’s Witness. Farmington Hills, MI: KidHaven Press.

Pursuingthetruth.org,. (2010). A Christian Perspective of Healing: Prayer. Retrieved 1 April 2015, from https://www.pursuingthetruth.org/sermons/files/healing-prayer.htm

Reynolds, F., & Carbine, J. (2000). The life of Buddhism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Shea, S., Wynyard, R., & Lionis, C. (2014). Providing Compassionate Healthcare. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.

Vaughn, L. M., Jacquez, F., & Baker, R. C. (2009). Cultural Health Attributions, Beliefs, and Practices: Effects on Healthcare and Medical Education. The Open Medical Education Journal, 2, 64-74.