(Part 2)
2. Objectives for considering a patient’s spiritual needs:
2.1 Given the immediate attention in health care settings to patients’ physical needs (in the context of psycho-social circumstances), the objectives for integrating attention to spiritual needs into patient care need to be precise and appropriately circumscribed. Hospitals and clinics do not have purposes parallel to spiritual retreat centers, synagogues, churches, mosques, . . . . What would be objectives for attending to a patient’s spiritual needs that are consistent with the purposes of health care settings? Possible answers might be (1) to insure effective communication, (2) to show respect for and understanding of patient preferences regarding their medical care, (3) to maximize the health benefits associated with patients having the heart of a fighter, (4) to search for factors contributing to a patient’s failing health.
2.2 Meeting a patients’ spiritual needs, then, has to do with minimizing the spiritual disturbance she is experiencing due to being in a hospital and/or due to injury/illness in order to maximize the benefits from her spiritual resources (1) for making decisions about her care and (2) for realizing her fullest measure of healing. To make the objectives for assessing a patient’s spiritual needs concrete, think in terms of assessing a patient’s centeredness – her balance and her focus. It is crucial that the patient has (or recovers) sufficient balance and focus to communicate well (which requires listening carefully, thinking courageously, and speaking clearly) and to participate appropriately in decisions about her care.
2.3 Assisting patients in the recovery of balance and focus is, in my judgment, the goal/consequence that makes giving attention to spirituality pertinent to caring for patients. (Fear of) serious illness or injury can challenge/threaten a patient’s balance and focus, thus raising crucial questions about the credibility of the spiritual foundation upon which she has built her life. A hospital is a particularly difficult setting in which to face this possibility. Sheer pain may eclipse a patient’s use of her spiritual resources. By being in a clinic exam room or in a hospital, she is distant from (or even cut off from) the activities and experiences essential to her spirituality. Then again, a patient’s spirituality may be contributing to her loss of balance and focus.
2.4 Loss of balance and focus may be a deeply significant process by which a patient’s spirituality is tested and eventually strengthened. My experience has led me to conclude that few individuals, before being confronted with (the possibility of) significant injury or disease, have ever taken seriously the existential hypothesis that facing one’s finitude is prerequisite to authentic living. Whatever the fraction who have, it is far too low for you to assume that a patient will retain her balance and focus when faced with (the real possibility of) life-threatening injury or disease. You thus may face a dilemma -- (1) on the one hand, you need your patient to be balanced and focused in order for management decisions to flow, (2) while on the other hand, you may have to give some of your patients time/opportunity to experience the spiritually refining/restructuring that may be necessary for them to again be centered.
2.1 Given the immediate attention in health care settings to patients’ physical needs (in the context of psycho-social circumstances), the objectives for integrating attention to spiritual needs into patient care need to be precise and appropriately circumscribed. Hospitals and clinics do not have purposes parallel to spiritual retreat centers, synagogues, churches, mosques, . . . . What would be objectives for attending to a patient’s spiritual needs that are consistent with the purposes of health care settings? Possible answers might be (1) to insure effective communication, (2) to show respect for and understanding of patient preferences regarding their medical care, (3) to maximize the health benefits associated with patients having the heart of a fighter, (4) to search for factors contributing to a patient’s failing health.
2.2 Meeting a patients’ spiritual needs, then, has to do with minimizing the spiritual disturbance she is experiencing due to being in a hospital and/or due to injury/illness in order to maximize the benefits from her spiritual resources (1) for making decisions about her care and (2) for realizing her fullest measure of healing. To make the objectives for assessing a patient’s spiritual needs concrete, think in terms of assessing a patient’s centeredness – her balance and her focus. It is crucial that the patient has (or recovers) sufficient balance and focus to communicate well (which requires listening carefully, thinking courageously, and speaking clearly) and to participate appropriately in decisions about her care.
2.3 Assisting patients in the recovery of balance and focus is, in my judgment, the goal/consequence that makes giving attention to spirituality pertinent to caring for patients. (Fear of) serious illness or injury can challenge/threaten a patient’s balance and focus, thus raising crucial questions about the credibility of the spiritual foundation upon which she has built her life. A hospital is a particularly difficult setting in which to face this possibility. Sheer pain may eclipse a patient’s use of her spiritual resources. By being in a clinic exam room or in a hospital, she is distant from (or even cut off from) the activities and experiences essential to her spirituality. Then again, a patient’s spirituality may be contributing to her loss of balance and focus.
2.4 Loss of balance and focus may be a deeply significant process by which a patient’s spirituality is tested and eventually strengthened. My experience has led me to conclude that few individuals, before being confronted with (the possibility of) significant injury or disease, have ever taken seriously the existential hypothesis that facing one’s finitude is prerequisite to authentic living. Whatever the fraction who have, it is far too low for you to assume that a patient will retain her balance and focus when faced with (the real possibility of) life-threatening injury or disease. You thus may face a dilemma -- (1) on the one hand, you need your patient to be balanced and focused in order for management decisions to flow, (2) while on the other hand, you may have to give some of your patients time/opportunity to experience the spiritually refining/restructuring that may be necessary for them to again be centered.
