Medical Education & Definitions – March 13th 2014
Human, Spiritual, Care

Questions from Prof
Religious vs spiritual? The Debate
Religion is practice and ritual and temples you go to
Religious are dogmatic, institutionalized
Spiritual is part of mind and free
Individual
More neutral term
Less fraught than language of religion

A common assumption in both Nursing and Medical education is a “tidy polarized interpretation” of what is religious and what is spiritual.

Spiritual care over Religious Care?
Sisley saunders? Attending to the most spiritual needs (family, community, sense of self)
Spiritual is less defined
Easier to talk to
Making them feel human, empathy for patient
Respect the patient
Presence for the patient regardless of what (cant fake it to someone else)
Whereas religion is more defined and it is what it is.

Suggesting that nursing itself is inherently spiritual training/care of somewhat, attending to the whole person.
-therapeutic care; yes, that is what nursing is about
-nurses give care as human beings and in doing that we affect the spirts of other human beings

Nursing interventions for the dying.. page 57 holding hands listening laughter prayer being present

What is a human being? person is more than the disease and more then the body complex evolving beings connected with the universe non material part of being assembles of traits and variables

challenges of medical profession has experienced
-femininst
improvements of public health

impact of spiritual and religions cares

1)Spirtuality and cultural miscommunication

-lady and infection in her leg
-very angry because neither the doctor nor her daughter had prepared her for the post trauma
-her daughter was a devoted chrisitan – didn’t believe in loss of leg

due to the absence of a culturally sensitive professional translator who might have been able to to engage spiritual concerns and concepts in a reasonable manner

important to recognize and clarify the impact of alternative spiritual values and formal religious beliefd among