Religion and Spirituality in Health Care Practice

Religion’s influence on patient care is expressed in prayer requests, in clinician-chaplain collaborations, and through health care organizations’ religious accommodations for patients and staff. Whether and how religion and spirituality training are critical components of students’ and clinicians’ development of cultural humility is one important set of questions explored in the July 2018 issue.

Volume 20, Number 7: E607-674 Full Issue PDF
  • From the Editor
    Jul 2018

    Influences of Religion and Spirituality in Medicine

    Danish Zaidi, MTS, MBE
    Religion and spirituality in medicine can help clinicians empathize with their patients, collaborate with hospital chaplains, and advance faith-based initiatives, hospital policy, and legislation.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E609-612. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.609.
  • Case and Commentary
    Jul 2018

    What Should Physicians and Chaplains Do When a Patient Believes God Wants Him to Suffer?

    Benjamin W. Frush, MD, MA, John Brewer Eberly Jr, MD, MA, and Farr A. Curlin, MD
    Physicians should accommodate patients’ religious or spiritual understanding of suffering, even when they disagree, as long as they uphold their commitment to health. Both physicians and chaplains, who promote patients’ spiritual well-being, should respectfully challenge patients when necessary.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E613-620. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.613.
  • Case and Commentary
    Jul 2018

    How Should Clinicians Respond to Requests from Patients to Participate in Prayer?

    April R. Christensen, MD, Tara E. Cook, MD, and Robert M. Arnold, MD
    Physicians who are uncomfortable with patients’ requests to participate in prayer should pause, listen respectfully, and reflect back their understanding of the request, regardless of whether they pray.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E621-629. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.621.
  • Case and Commentary
    Jul 2018

    Should Clinicians Challenge Faith-Based Institutional Values Conflicting with Their Own?

    Jane Morris, MD and Kavita Shah Arora, MD, MBE
    Clinicians in Catholic health care institutions cannot prescribe contraceptives for pregnancy prevention under a false diagnosis without committing fraud and contravening doctrine. Referrals are one option the authors consider for navigating patient requests for contraception.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E630-636. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.630.
  • Medical Education
    Jul 2018

    Fostering Discussion When Teaching Abortion and Other Morally and Spiritually Charged Topics

    Louise P. King, MD, JD and Alan Penzias, MD
    Educators discussing ethically challenging topics with students should try to cultivate open mindedness while illuminating potential negative consequences that their health practice beliefs—such as refusing to provide abortion care—can have for patients, particularly those with limited options.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E637-642. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.637.
  • Policy Forum
    Jul 2018

    Best Practices for Partnering with Ethnic Minority-Serving Religious Organizations on Health Promotion and Prevention

    Nadia Islam, PhD and Shilpa Patel, PhD
    Successful implementation of initiatives to improve screening and access to health-promotion activities at minority-serving religious institutions requires partnering with faith-based organizations, adapting interventions, and leveraging organizational infrastructure and social networks.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E643-654. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.643.
  • Medicine and Society
    Jul 2018

    Training Physicians as Healers

    Aparna Sajja, MD and Christina Puchalski, MD
    The George Washington University has taken the lead in preparing trainees to meet patients’ spiritual needs by integrating spirituality into its curriculum, developing a training program for teaching interprofessional spiritual care, and designing spirituality-related competency behaviors.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E655-663. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.655.
  • Art of Medicine
    Jul 2018

    Balance of Principles

    Karl Lorenzen
    The 3 drawings in this series illustrate how patients’ fears and suffering—generated by dental pain, chemotherapy, or lack of health insurance—can be counterbalanced by the foundational ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E664-667. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.664.
  • Art of Medicine
    Jul 2018

    Healing Body and Spirit

    Ariana Ellis
    This drawing of two hands—one holding pills and another, a rosary—illustrates how clinicians seeking to provide compassionate care must balance maintaining their professional boundaries with understanding of patients’ spirituality.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E668-669. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.668.
  • Personal Narrative
    Jul 2018

    Chaplains’ Roles as Mediators in Critical Clinical Decisions

    Susan Harris, MHL
    Chaplains can mediate between physicians and families by clarifying religious issues for physicians, who can then present treatment options informed by a patient’s priorities. Ideally, family and religious values and a physician’s judgment should work together to inform decision making.
    AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(7):E670-674. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2018.670.