How Diversity of Faith is Effectively Used in Nursing Care Essay

Even though medical exam cureing is mainly based upon scientific feelings, one can non entailment the effect of phantasmal whims in the healing of a forbearing. For many masses with a strong ghostlike conviction, the simple belief in the world power of prayer is enough to create signs of healing even in the approximately critical of residuumurings.Even though the effects of prayer are undocumented, thither is a growing belief among many that combine plays a fundamental role in healing a patient when science has stipulation him up for dead. In the medical field, nurses are slowly realizing that a alteration of faith among their patients has them in a bind. Not all nurses are religious, nor do they share the same religious traditions as the patient. In much(prenominal) instances, it is up to the nurse to find a middle ground where they can pay back the religious beliefs of individual patients without losing sight of their own religion.Nursing is a highly technical occupation. This is why even though nurses realize that each patient has a uncanny need, the nurse may non always be trained to respond to it. So this job is usually relegated to the hospitals pastoral aid workers even though nurses would be better laid to deliver such patient needs. It is not for a nurse to suspense the religious beliefs of her patients, but it is her job to insure that these beliefs are fully utilize in the process of availing a patient to heal twain physically, mentally, and spiritually.Unfortunately, the nursing shortage in the country does not leave the nurses with oft to connect on a personal basis with their patients. Patient care and comfort are forgone in lieu of duration management and get the job done. Though nurses have traditionally been viewed as both medical and spiritual healers because of the personal connection they have with their wards, the lack of time and way as to how to combine patient care and religion are move our nurses off th e original objectives of why they became nurses.Roberta Bube, RN, PHN currently works part time as nurse at the Marion Medical Center in Santa Maria, Calif. check to her interview in Nurseweek for the article You Gotta Have Fait, she realized that You have to contend mind, body and spirit, I always found time to do it in a hospital. I did have to be cautious. Id have to do it quietly. Everybodys beliefs are different. So, how can a nurse integrate the religious aspect and its various differences in their daily dealings with their individual patients?Firstly, a nurse can typically start by incorporating the patients religious belief into her basic daily care routine for the patient. At the Saint Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara, California, clinical coordinator Jan Ingram, RN, explains in the same article that Whether youre giving them a sponge bath or putting them on the commode, if youre really there with them-mindfully present-that is a spiritual action. Nurses have to re alize that listening and communicating with their patient is of vital grandness in succoring a patient heal. This includes developing ways and means for the patient to be competent to effectively practice their beliefs and be able to assist in the patients personal spiritual care. at a time a nurse learns to approach a person holistically, the nurse get out now be in a very good position to accept the various faiths of their patients and convert the same or varied belief amongst the patients she is in charge of.Secondly, the nurse mustiness be willing to trammel aside her own personal spiritual beliefs and instead be unsolved minded and willing to accept the faith of the patient while she is fondness for him or her. A patient may request for a rule book reading, a short prayer, or simply letting the patient sing with the nurse listening and prepared to reassure her at the end that divinity fudge has not abandoned him or her. If need be, a nurse must not hesitate to accom modate a patients request to join him in a religious activity. Such activities tend to reassure a patient and keep him calm throughout the healing process.Lastly, it is highly imperative that nurses sleep with and understand the religious beliefs of their patients as these beliefs can affect their medical decisions pertaining to procedures such as operations or end of life decisions. So, a nurse is encouraged to discuss and explore their patients religious beliefs if a patient is homely doing so with the nurse. This will allow a nurse to develop and come along the trust of the patient because the patient will be comfortable in the knowledge that the nurse in charge of her care understands her religious belief and will always respect its role in their lives. Such put up systems between patient and nurse usually prove vital in the therapeutic alliance of the two parties. It is also highly important that a nurse, even though not a devout practitioner of her religion, believes i n God and knows how to pray. Even though a nurse is taught how to compartmentalize her feelings and not be affected by the events of the day at the hospital, one cannot help but be affected.There will be times in the course of performing her duty that she will call science into suspense and why it failed certain patients, or why it cannot seem to heal a patient who has no reason to be ill. During those situations, when science seems to fail her, the but thing she will find herself clinging to is her belief in god or her religion. It is this faith that she will take with her as she tries to heal her patient and help him cope with his medical situation. This will be the common denominator binding them. doctrine in religion regardless of what the religion is commonly called.At the end of the day, nurses will have to learn to accept and integrate the diversified cultures and religious beliefs of their patients. The nurse will have to turn to her own personal faith for support as well . All of this because healing a patient is not all a matter of science. It is also a matter of spiritual belief in a Supreme Being who can heal us all of our aches and pains in any form or guise.Work CitedHebert Randy S. Jenckes., Mollie W. Ford, Daniel E. OConnor, Debra R. $ Cooper, Lisa A. (2001). Patient Perspectives on church property and the Patient-Physician Relationship. Journal of Internal General Medicine. Retrieved May 25, 2007 from http//www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1495274Hemilla, Donna. (2002). You Gotta Have Faith. Nurseweek. Retrieved May 20, 2007 from http//www.nurseweek.com/ news/features/02-09/faith.aspMitchell, Joyce & Haroun, Lee. (2005). Healthcare. Singapore. Thomson Delmar.Wensley, Michelle. Spirituality in Nursing. Retrieved May 21, 2007 from http//www.ciap.health.nsw.gov.au/hospolic/stvincents/1995/a04.html