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A thesis on the effect of including spirituality in healing
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Prayer as Caring-Healing Practice with Older Adults
In seeking alternative and complementary therapies, the relationship that spirituality has with clinical care has been under scrutiny. This paper aims to describe and reflect on a healthcare module and an article by Coats, Crist, Berger, Sternberg, & Rosenfeld (2015). It then provides insights that the journal article and the module develop regarding prayer being part of caring nursing praxis with older adult clients. With prayer showing potential effectiveness in healthcare, clear guidelines are necessary to integrate prayer when handling older adults.
The purpose of the module was to examine the various scientific theories that explain the way healing takes place because of prayer. It provides what prayer entails, the different forms of prayer and its links to healthcare. It also advances the theories and principles that relate theory to prayer due to relaxation response, healing presence, placebo response, secondary control and positive feelings. It also provides the applications of prayer in healthcare. Whereas, the article by Coats et al. (2015) sought to examine the patterns and categories of social,
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Considering the CAREE process as a person-centered process guiding the nursing practice, prayer establishes a caring-healing relationship with older adults (O'Brien Lewis, 2016). For me, it will no longer be a question whether to be considered as a caring and healing praxis, but the conditions when prayer can be integrated (Struve, Lu, Hart, & Keller, 2015). Expectedly, various explanations expound on the effectiveness of prayer. However, Struve et al. (2015) identify intention or attention that older adults have as central in enabling healing. Intention tends to be fundamental in healing and a potent force initiating a flow of subtle energy to influence the desired
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
Therapeutic touch was developed by Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz in the 1970s as a non-invasive nursing intervention (Kelly et al. 2004). Jackson and Keegan (2009, p.614) defined therapeutic touch as “a specific technique of centring intention used while the practitioner moves the hands through a recipient’s energy field for the purpose of assessing and treating energy field imbalance.” The original theory of the technique proposed by nursing theorist Rogers (1970) is that individuals as a unified whole have their own permeable energy fields that extend from the skin surface and flow evenly when they are healthy. The energy field of the ill physical body is disrupted, misaligned, obstructed or “out of tune” (Huff et al. 2006). TT has the potential to re-pattern, reorganize and restore the individual’s imbalanced energy fields through the open system extending from the surface of the body interacting with the environment constantly (Krieger, 1979). The earliest studies of healing touch were carried out in the 1950s and 1960s: biochemist Bernard Grad (1965) collaborated with famous healer Oskar Estebany to demonstrate the significantly accelerated healing effects of therapeutic touch on wounded mice and damaged barley seeds. The central aim of healing therapies is to relax and calm patients in order to activate patients’ natural healing ability, and it does not include any religious activity (Lorenc et al. 2010).
Due to the growing issue dealing with the aging baby boomers generation, gerontology has been brought into immediate attention in the health care system. We are still learning and discovering about the anonymities behind the aging processes. Aging and death is a normal stage of life, even though there is an increase in technology and knowledge that would lengthen your existence, bringing the body back to youth is not possible. As one ages it is very common for one to go through physical, psychological and mental degeneration of the body. In the gerontological setting, it is important for nurses to commit to caring and providing a good quality of life. This is done by providing a dignified death instead of simply sustaining life. In order to make this happen it is important to incorporate Jean Watson’s caritas processes into the care plan. By providing good person to person care a nurse can improve the quality of life of patients and their family members. This paper will focus on the use of caritas process number 9 in the gerontological setting to develop a healing relationship with my client, use of professional knowledge needed to assist my client in his/her needs, a nursing action that helped my client’s needs and the difference the care made to my clients healing. In the gerontological setting, “spirituality must be considered a significant factor in understanding healthy aging” (Touhy, Jett, Boscart, & McCleary, october 2011, p. 98). Gerontological nurses have to put spirituality of an older adult in priority, because as you age spirituality is very important to them and it is source of hope and helps them in adaptation of their illness. Findings of a Canadian community health sur...
Weaver, Andrew J. and Kevin J. Flannelly. “The Role of Religion/Spirituality for Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers.” Southern Medical Journal 97 (December 2004): pp. 97-98. 1210-1214. Spiegel, David. The 'Standard'.
Although only a small percentage of children are dying from faith-healing practices, the awareness needs to be brought to the public. Faith in a religion has many benefits but the idea of abandoning medicine is bad for ones wellbeing. Precautionary signs of illness in infants must be treated immediately. Medicine alongside faith is the ideal situation in which many lives will be saved. Holding faith has proven to be positive for many people but one must take cautionary action when treating illnesses with faith healing as their only medicine. Faith healing and medicine collectively used with one another can yield the highest rates of recovery and general wellbeing, through reducing stress, relieving pain and anxiety, and increasing the desire to live. When the human body is able to release these stressors, one’s health has an increased rate of being cured.
Consulting for the Caring Angel Hospital Working in the health care industry takes a lot of courage and patience in order to deal with different individual’s personalities and to be equipped to handle stressful situations according to the issues at hand. As a senior consultant at the Practical Health Care Consulting firm, my supervisor has instructed me to spend three months at the Caring Angel Hospital. While at the hospital there are a few tasks for improving the quality of care, adding value to the organization, improving employee morale, etc. Although these obstacles will be a challenge, there is an opportunity for improvement. This will allow the Caring Angel Hospital to increase revenue and accomplish the goals that are established.
This paper will discuss three different religions that a health care provider may care for in the nursing field. It will discuss the spiritual perspective, as well as the critical components of healing, such as through prayer and meditation. The writer will give a brief summary of each religions belief. The three religions that will be discussed in this paper are Native American, Hinduism, and Buddhism. This paper will discuss what is important to people who are cared for of a particular faith by the health care provider who may have an entirely different belief system. The writer will discuss how a patient may view a health care provider who puts aside his or her own beliefs in the interest of the beliefs and practices of the patient that is being cared for. The writer of this paper is of Christian belief and will compare her beliefs of faith and healing with the three previously mentioned religions.
Developing a sense of wholeness and having an established relationship with their creator, can assist the individual with maintaining stability during times of illness, stress, or when a cure is not possible. This can facilitate a source of healing within, which will promote the health of members in the faith based community. “To promote healing, the nurse builds on strengths to encourage the connecting and integrating of the inner spiritual” (Stanhope, Marcia, & Lancaster, 2012, p. 972). Connecting with the inner spiritual is an important aspect because it can assist the individual with making healthier lifestyle choices. By making healthier lifestyle choices, the individual will achieve their optimal health or wellness and this will be beneficial for the individual and faith based
Patient and Family Centered Care As our health care system continues to evolve and family members become increasingly involved in their loved ones care, a collaborative partnership must be encouraged and sustained by nursing leaders in order to foster a healthy environment for patients, families, and health care professionals (HCP) (Manojlovich, Barnsteiner, Bolton, Disch, & Saint, 2008, p. S13). That being said, from a nursing leadership perspective, how does patient and family centered care (PFCC), as a nursing leadership issue within a local context, influence the health experience of individuals in an acute care setting? This paper will include a critical analysis of various elements that influence PFCC, will examine potential barriers and challenges, and discuss possible resolutions for change. Background (Historical Analysis) In the year nineteen sixty-nine, Balint and colleagues originally introduced the term ‘patient centered medicine,’ however nineteen years later in nineteen eighty-eight, the term ‘patient centered care’ emerged from the Picker Commonwealth Program (p. 126), which has been the foundation of PFCC today.
Throughout history, it seems that medicine and spirituality have been linked in many circumstances. In a study looking at the use of complementary and alternative therapies in cardiac patients, spiritual healing was one of many practices patient sought to utilize. In another study, 29% of participants chose to use prayer or premeditation as a way to cope with their chronic illness. In both studies, prayer or meditation was more likely to be used by individuals who had a large social network, as well as support from another person in the same health situation. Based on these studies, it seems that many individuals (not just cardiovascular patients) turn to their spirituality in times of health distress.
...locking out the idea. Spirituality also assists in fostering a healthy patient. Many individuals believe in a higher power and therefore we as nurses should encourage that connection when we see it being made. Spiritual connections are a way to give the patient an outlet. They are able to express themselves and rely on something other than physical care and diagnoses. They are about to look to this higher being for encouragement, peace, and healing.
Oshita, D., Hattori, K., & Iwakuma, M. (2013). A Buddhist-based meditation practice for care and healing: An introduction and its application. International Journal Of Nursing Practice, 15-23. doi:10.1111/ijn.12040
Rex Smith, A. (2009). Nursing and spirituality: What happened to religion. Journal of Christian Nursing, 26(4), 216-222. doi:10.1097/01.CNJ0000361243.35944.69
School prayer, in the context of religious liberty, is state-sanctioned or mandatory prayer by students in public schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, state-sponsored prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited. Countries which prohibit or limit school prayer often differ in their reasons for doing so: In the United States, school prayer cannot be required of students in accordance with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.