Health Care Provider and Faith Diversity

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The world is full of diversity. You can find this diversity in nature, along with people their cultures and belief systems. The following paper will describe three of these belief systems in order to familiarize the reader with a small example of how a belief system shapes their response to healthcare. The three religions that will be covered will be Baha'i Faith, Islam, and Buddhism.

In the Bahá'í faith they believe in an universal consciousness, teaching that there is only one God, that there is only one human race, and that all the world’s religions represent stages in the revelation of God’s will and purpose for humanity. Their religious leader has said “the time has arrived for the uniting of all peoples into a peaceful and integrated global society. “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens” (The Bahá’í Faith: The International Website of the Bahá’ís of the World, n.d.). To this end they believe in healing thru the power of spiritual healing along with the process of physical healing. This system is usually comprised of a mixture of exercise, meditation, proper nutrition, prayer and visualization. Along with this is the use of physical medicine such as medications, diagnostic imagining, and acupuncture. They believe that there are “Three Tools of Healing – Medical Intervention, Prayer, and Joy and Laughter.” Because these three tools are also in the tool box of most care providers there is a symbiotic relationship between those that follow the Bahá'í faith and those that are in the medical field. So the question of what is important to people of a particular faith when cared for by health care providers whose spiritual beliefs differ from their own? Is best answered with they also believe that anyone that is...

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...of who we are. It is very important to clarify practices with our patients in order to increase the comfort and peace of minds of our patients and their families so they may have an easier time with the process of healing.

Works Cited

Islam USA (n.d.). Information for Health Care Providers when dealing with a Muslim Patient. Retrieved May 2, 2011, from http://www.islam-usa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115:information-for-health-care-providers-when-dealing-with-a-muslim-patient&catid=60:articles&Itemid=145

The Bahá’í Faith: The International Website of the Bahá’ís of the World (n.d.). Let your vision be world embracing. Retrieved May 1, 2011, from http://www.bahai.org/

UrbanDharma.org (2004). Buddhist Beliefs and Practices Affecting Health Care - Chaplaincy Services. Retrieved May 2, 2011, from ttp://www.urbandharma.org/udharma8/health.html

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