PATIENTS RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND THEIR HEALTH
Every person has a right to his or her own beliefs, but how do the patients feel about talking about their beliefs in the health setting. I was working at Groote Schuur Hospital where I saw patients that sustained complete spinal cord injuries. When I went to go see one of my patients in the ward, for the second time, he asked me if I think that he will walk again. The patient was diagnosed with T1 muscle complete and sensory complete (MCSC), which in the medical field basically means that the patient does not have a chance to walk again. I explained to the patient what this diagnosis means for his future and how he could manage it.
The patient asked me if I believe in miracles and that there is a God that will heal him, and that he will walk again. As a believer myself, I found myself tempted to reciprocate this feeling of believing in miracles. I responded with something like, “I can only comment on scientific and medical facts but continue to trust in your faith”. As the day went on, I found myself confronted with the fact of religious talks with my patients and if a patient will benefit from having such a discussion with a health care provider.
A study suggested that the majority of physicians believe the presence of illness increase patients’ awareness of and focus on religious and spirituality (R/S) issues (Curlin, Sellergren, Lantos, & Chin, 2007). Furthermore, the physicians also believe that R/S helps patients to cope, provides emotional and practical support via the religious community, and gives patients a positive state of mind (Curlin, Sellergren, Lantos, & Chin, 2007). A few physicians believe that R/S often changes the “hard” medical outcomes, but majority believe that the influence of R/S is generally positive (Curlin, Sellergren, Lantos, & Chin, 2007). Another study suggested that greater R/S is associated with better physical health in patients with cancer (Jim, et al., 2015). This study stated that affective R/S was significantly associated with better physical symptoms, physical well-being, and functional well-being (Jim, et al., 2015). On the other hand, one participant in a study went from positive to negative, regarding his beliefs, due to the fact that physical problems made it impossible for him to attend church services which previously provided him with strength and satisfaction (O’Brien, 1982).
Another study found that a large number of inpatients desire to have a discussion about R/S with health care workers (Williams, Meltzer, Arora, Chung, & Curlin, 2011). On the other hand, some patients feel that their religious beliefs are private and that they do not want to share how they feel regarding their religion (Cinnirella & Loewenthal, 1999). A study suggested that for many patients it is not enough to only address emotional concerns without specifically asking about religious concerns or issues (Williams, Meltzer, Arora, Chung, & Curlin, 2011). Furthermore, this study suggests that patients who had a discussion about religion and spirituality during their hospital stay were more likely to give a positive assessment of their care (Williams, Meltzer, Arora, Chung, & Curlin, 2011). A reason for these patients’ high ratings of satisfaction is that having a discussion about R/S provided them with greater overall coordination of care or for more comprehensive, multidisciplinary care. It may also reflect that the members of the health care team have good communication between them (Williams, Meltzer, Arora, Chung, & Curlin, 2011).
What I have found about having religious or spiritual talks with a patient, is how you combine religious beliefs and medicine to provide the best care. Patients want to be able to discuss their believes with the health care practitioner, and to feel that their values and morals are being taken in to consideration when they are provided with care. It is important for us as health care workers to educate ourselves on how to have religious talks with our patients, which in the end will help us provide the best care possible. We, as clinicians, should ask the patient if and how they use religion to cope. This will give us an understanding of how the patient understands and gives meaning to the illness. This also helps to build the relationship between the clinician and the patient, as the patient sees that the clinician is treating them as a ‘whole person’ (Harrison, Koenig, Hays, Eme-Akwari, & Pargament, 2001).
References
Cinnirella, M., & Loewenthal, K. M. (1999). Religious and ethnic group influences on beliefs about mental illness: A qualitative interview study. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 505-524.
Curlin, F. A., Sellergren, S. A., Lantos, J. D., & Chin, M. H. (2007). Physicians’ Observations and Interpretations of the Influence of Religion and Spirituality on Health. Archives of Internal Medicine, 649-654.
Harrison, M. O., Koenig, H. G., Hays, J. C., Eme-Akwari, A. G., & Pargament, K. I. (2001). The epidemiology of religious coping: a review of recent literature. International Review of Psychiatry, 86-93.
Jim, H. S., Pustejovsky, J. E., Park, C. L., Danhauer, S. C., Sherman, A. C., Fitchett, G., . . . Salsman, J. M. (2015). Religion, Spirituality, and Physical Health in Cancer Patients: A Meta-Analysis. Cancer, 3760-3768.
O’Brien, M. E. (1982). Religious Faith and Adjustment to Long-Term Hemodialysis. Journal of Religion and Health, 68-80.
Williams, J. A., Meltzer, D., Arora, V., Chung, G., & Curlin, F. A. (2011). Attention to Inpatients’ Religious and Spiritual Concerns: Predictors and Association with Patient Satisfaction. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 11(26), 1265-1271. doi:10.1007/s11606-011-1781-y
2 thoughts on “Religion in the Health System”
This is a very interesting topic, especially in a South African context where we have such a diverse cultural and religious society.
Content: I like the personal reflection used in your introduction, it immediately invokes a sense of sympathy and interest on the part of the reader. I do think that you could benefit by reducing it by a sentence or two. You discuss very relevant and interesting studies and I think you provided good concise summaries thereof. Your piece would however, in my opinion, benefit greatly from more engagement after this discussion. I also think a conclusion paragraph would be great.
Spelling and grammar: You write well and you have a great vocabulary. My only comments are that you may want to revise your second sentence in the first paragraph ( the “that” makes the sentence read a bit difficult) and just have another look at your tenses in the third and fourth paragraphs (you switch between “believe” and “believed” quite a bit).
Referencing: Perhaps just refer to the titles/authors of the studies.
Hey Roche, thank you for sharing your experience. Religion is often a very sensitive topic in any given context and it is more complex when being discussed alongside science. I have had a similar experience treating a patient who was for palliative care and the family member was down in spirits I often thought it would be inappropriate to offer hope or encouragement in such a situation until I saw my clinician go over to the family member to offer some words of an encouragement.
The content of your writing cleary reflects your topic and the image you chose supports your topic as it is as it represents religion and medicine working alongside each other for the benefit of the patient.
The argument in your writing is about whether it is right to talk about religion with your patients. You did not explore the argument extensively enough as you only offered the positive effects of discussing religion as a means of providing hope in the short term. I think you should explore the negative part of that this could also have in the long term, for instance, you could explore how in the long term it affects the patients’ emotional state e if the miracle does not happen.
There are no references in your work and you made statements in the last two paragraphs that need to be referenced.
Make the following changes to grammar and spelling (p-paragraph):
p 1 line 1: Does = Do
p3 line 1 & 6: Shown= showed or found
p3 line 4: majority= the majority
p4 line: 2 that that= that
p4 line 4: they= their