Topic 1 DQ 2

Re:Topic 1 DQ 2
The role of spirituality in healthcare was the article I found interesting. The article was geared toward Physicians but I think all of healthcare should incorporate this approach. To start understanding and practicing compassion healthcare providers should:
Practicing compassionate presence—i.e., being fully present and attentive to their patients and being supportive to them in all of their suffering: physical, emotional, and spiritual
Listening to patients’ fears, hopes, pain, and dreams
Obtaining a spiritual history
Being attentive to all dimensions of patients and their families: body, mind, and spirit
Incorporating spiritual practices as appropriate
Involving chaplains as members of the interdisciplinary health care team (Puchalski,2001)
Spirituality can be an important element in the way patients face chronic illness, suffering, and loss. Healthcare providers need to address and be attentive to all suffering of their patients—physical, emotional, and spiritual. Doing so is part of delivery of compassionate care. I think we can be better healthcare providers and true partners in our patients’ living and in their dying if we can be compassionate: if we truly listen to their hopes, their fears, and their beliefs and incorporate these beliefs into their therapeutic plans (Puchalski, 2001).
Showing compassion and understanding develops a level of trust in our patients that will take the level of care to another level. Engaging our patients in a feeling of complete acceptance and develop a partnership that is otherwise impossible.