Healing Hospital: A Daring Paradigm
Nathalie Conti
HLT310V – Foundations of Spirituality in Health Care
Grand Canyon University
February 12th, 2011

Healing Hospital: A Daring Paradigm The healing hospital paradigm focuses on the removal of stress and other health risks in the hospital environment for both patients and visitors. These factors are intrinsic to the hospital setting and not the ailments being treated within. For example, stress for patients is generated through painful therapeutic procedures, loss of social life, change in financial status due to the healthcare expenditures, etc. Minimization of these stressors ensures that the patient’s well-being is maintained while the comprehensive care and attention aspects
Further, this creates a lower stress environment for the staff with fewer distractions, thus decrease in common medical errors.
A culture of Radical Loving Care This most significant component of the healing hospital entwines treatment with a culture of love, caring and empathy, a philosophy supported by former Baptist Healing Hospital Trust executive Erie Chapman (Chapman, 2010, p. 214). Building an engaging culture in which the caregivers are aware of their responsibilities and adept at dutifully carrying them through is essential in a healing hospital. All staff members must support unconditional love for patients and visitors, their first priority, and incorporate this feeling into their actions. Compassionate care through patient-centric relationships is the foundation on which the building of the healing hospital rests. By showing unconditional love through compassionate care and minimizing grief and stress levels of the patients and their families, caregivers inspire hope. The element of hope is strengthened through prayer, grounding the healing hospital in a spiritual relationship.
Challenges and Complexities of the Healing Hospital Environment According to Chapman (2010, p. 32), there are five challenges that healing hospitals must