Healing Process Nursing - Essay Example

?Healthcare service providers have to encounter and deal with patients of different faith and spiritual practices. It is critical therefore that a diversified understanding of different aspects of spirituality and how it connects with the healing should be clearly understood and explored. However, the overall diversity of the spiritual beliefs may make it relatively difficult for the healthcare service providers to critical evaluate and understand all the different aspects. In consideration of this, this paper will therefore discuss the results of interviews taken from Sikh, Jain and Baha’i patients to understand their perspective on healing and healthcare. Spiritual Perspective on healing According to our Sikh patient, the divine name is considered as the healing medium through which healing could occur. According to their belief, those ailments which cannot be vanished can vanish with the name of the divine. As such the spiritual perspective of this patient regarding healing is entirely based upon connecting the divine name and heals through that. Jain religion is considered as similar to the Buddhism as teachings of both are relatively similar. According to our Jain patient, her spiritual perspective is rather based upon the meditation and adapting a holistic approach towards life. This therefore ensures healing because extracting stress out of the body can heal according to Jain spiritual practices. Baha’I perspective on healing is based upon the use of relaxation as well as adequate nutrition to achieve health. Our patient suggests that she believes that good relaxation as well as stress free living actually allows our souls to heal our bodies. Critical Components of Healing According to Sikh spiritual practices, meditation of the name of the divine is the most important component of achieving health. This therefore requires the person to actually focus on the name and allow the frequencies of that name to merge with the person to get healed. Apart from this, there is also a degree of faith involved because every person is required to have that faith before they can actually use the divine name to achieve the healing. Further, according to Jain religion, it is meditation which is most important to achieve the health benefits and connect the healing process. It is believed that meditation is the starting point in Jain traditions to actually start the healing process. Apart from this, focus on a typical diet is also another critical component of healing as it is believed that different foods have the healing powers and can expedite this process. According to Baha’I traditions, focus on good diet is the starting component to achieve the healing besides focusing on the prayer as the essential component of healing. Prayer has also been discussed in different literature to have an impact on the healing. (Ameling., 2000). Another important component is achieving gradual relaxation and how to overcome the stress from the body. It is therefore critical for a person to ensure that gradual and short bursts of relaxation are achieved either through meditation or other means to actually get the stress out of the body. This would ensure that the body develops its own fighting mechanism to deal with different ailments. Different Spiritual Beliefs In a multi-cultural as well as multi-faith society it is relatively difficult for the Nurses and healthcare services providers to offer complete spiritual support to the patients to get healed. The diversity of the spiritual practices therefore makes it relatively difficult for the healthcare providers to accommodate or deal with. (MacLaren, 2004) However, all three patients believe that what is important is whether the healthcare service provider can actually understand their spiritual needs. This is therefore regardless of the fact that whether the belief system of the healthcare service provider is relatively different from their own. This suggests that patients are relatively more interested in whether the nurses and other staff can actually understand their spiritual needs and how they can actually adapt to these needs to provide holistic healing experience to them. (Clark , Cross ,Deane , & Lowry , 1991) Christian Philosophy of Healing and Faith Patients increasingly view their healthcare providers as Messiah because they have been able to experience an unbiased treatment to their health needs. Though the patients recognize the differences between the healing practices of their own as well as that of the healthcare service providers however, they generally believe that it is in their interest to cooperate with the healthcare services providers. This also means that healthcare service providers have to let go of their own beliefs and allow the patients to actually speak about their own spiritual needs. Patients therefore increasingly view such healthcare service providers as supporters in terms of improving their own lives to achieve better health. Christian beliefs suggest that the religion itself practice faith healing and therefore is based upon integrating the faith with the overall practices of healing. Though there have been instances where it was generally believed that Christian beliefs are in direct conflict with others as well as with science however, it is not the case. Christian beliefs and philosophy of healing actually advocates the use of compassion towards everyone in order to help them to heal themselves and get healthy. Learning from these interviews One of the key issues which I believe I came to deal with during these interviews was the accommodation of different beliefs. I believe that it has greatly helped me to actually understand the different approaches towards healing besides knowing as to how to deal with the people who belong to different faith and carry out different spiritual practices. It is also interesting for me to learn that the underlying philosophy of almost all the spiritual practices is relatively same and therefore it is relatively easy for a healthcare services provider to actually understand them in relatively broader manner. This has allowed me to actually focus on the broader aspects of these spiritual beliefs and how I can reconcile them in order to become impartial and unbiased in my judgment. This has further allowed me to develop my own personal philosophy of understanding different faiths in relatively broader meaning. As a healthcare service provider I believe that I have been able to learn a lot from this experience. Bibliography Ameling., A. (2000). Prayer: an ancient healing practice becomes new again. Holist Nurs Pract., 14, 40–49. Clark C, JR, C., DM, D., & LW, L. (1991). Spirituality: integral to quality. Holist Nurs Pract, 67-76. MacLaren, J. (2004). A kaleidoscope of understandings: spiritual nursing in a multi-faith society. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45(5), 457–464. Read More