PHI 413 Topic 1 DQ 1 DQ: What would spirituality be according to your own worldview?

PHI 413 Topic 1 DQ 1 DQ: What would spirituality be according to your own worldview?

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).

What would spirituality be according to your own worldview? How do you believe that your conception of spirituality would influence the way in which you care for patients?

Replies

Spirituality, in my perspective, is a belief in a higher power than oneself. It also entails believing in a power greater than oneself or any other human being. As a nurse, I conduct myself ethically and responsibly and utilize these beliefs to improve care, comprehension, and human compassion. Further, spirituality assists patients in managing stress, making significant health choices, and improving their overall living standards. As a nurse, I collect spiritual backgrounds to get a more in-depth understanding of the patient’s spiritual and religious history and select the most appropriate assistance.

Each patient has unique spiritual requirements that may or may not be religious. The patient may convey this requirement verbally or implicitly. The patient or family may not even realize they are asking for spiritual help. Spiritually distressed patients or their relatives may express a sense of disconnection, hopelessness, future apprehension, purposelessness, or belief in punishment (Selman et al., 2017). As a nurse, I am constantly aware of the patient’s needs, irrespective of conveying them. They may miss these requests for spiritual assistance if I am not attentive.

As a nurse, I can include the patient’s spiritual requirements into their treatment plan. I employ connections, patient involvement, and bodily therapeutic interventions as part of a complete plan of care. Spiritual care initiatives are adaptable, and the nurse and other healthcare team members may provide them in several ways (O’Brien et al., 2018). By respecting the patient’s spirituality and offering presence, building a therapeutic connection, and conversing with the patient gives value to the person. Saying a prayer with the patient, providing caring participation, fostering the person’s faith’s practice, trying to explore options to hurdles, boosting pardon, providing assistance to the patient in uncovering self-expectations and establishing whether those goals are achievable, and encouraging profound articulation of emotions with communication skills are all examples of spiritual initiatives I could employ as a nurse (Selman et al., 2017).

Although spiritual care is meant to help people, I frequently gain as a nurse. Interpersonal trust and a connection with the patient require high emotional intelligence. It’s important to realize that spirituality isn’t always theological care (Ross et al., 2018). Whereas the health care industry easily incorporates spirituality into therapy, spiritual care is essential in all sectors of operation. For the sake of our clients, we as caregivers must respect spiritual support, learn the required skills, and schedule time to satisfy these needs.

References

O’Brien, M. R., Kinloch, K., Groves, K. E., & Jack, B. A. (2018). Meeting patients’ spiritual needs during end‐of‐life care: A qualitative study of nurses and healthcare professionals’ perceptions of spiritual care training. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(1-2), 182-189. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14648

Ross, L., McSherry, W., Giske, T., Van Leeuwen, R., Schep-Akkerman, A., Koslander, T., Hall, J., Steenfeldt, V. Ø., & Jarvis, P. (2018). Nursing and midwifery students’ perceptions of spirituality, spiritual care, and spiritual care competency: A prospective, longitudinal, correlational European study. Nurse Education Today, 67, 64-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.05.002