Abstract
Enthusiasm is growing in nursing and medicine for addressing spirituality and religious needs in patient care. We urge caution and stress the need for greater awareness of the dangers involved. The first danger is the lack of any attention given to how informed consent might be relevant to the topic of patient autonomy in spiritual health care decisions. The second danger is that the major health care providers, nursing and medicine, are not adequately educated to provide such care. The third danger is that we have not yet sufficiently clarified the roles of the various providers and as a consequence coordination of quality spiritual care is in jeopardy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing). (1998). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Washington, DC: AACN.
Barnes, L.L., Plotnikoff, G.A., Fox, K., and Pendleton, S. (2000). Spirituality, religion, and pediatrics: Intersecting worlds of healing. Pediatrics. 106 (4), 899-908.
Beauchamp, T.L., & Childress, J.F. (1994). Principles of biomedical ethics (4th ed.). New York: Oxford Press.
Burkhart, L., & Solari-Twadell, A. (2001). Spirituality and religiousness: Differentiating the diagnosis through a review of the nursing literature. Nursing Diagnosis. 12 (2), 45-54.
Carpenito, L.J., et al. (1997). Nursing Diagnosis: Application to clinical practice (7th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Cohen, C.B., Wheeler, S.E., Scott, D.A., & The Anglican Working Group in Bioethics. (2001). Walking a fine line: Physician Inquiries into patients' religious and spiritual beliefs. The Hastings Center Report. 31 (5), 29-39.
DeLashmutt, M., & Silva, M.C. (2000). The ethics of long-distance intercessory prayer. NursingConnections. 13 (3), 40-43.
Dossey, B.M., Keegan, L., and Guzzetta, C.E. (2000). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice (3rd ed.). Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen Publishers, Inc.
Dossey, L. (1997). The return of prayer. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 3 (6), 10-17, 113-120.
Gallup, G.H., Jr. (1996). Religion in America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Religion Research Center.
Highfield, M.F. (1993). PLAN: A spiritual care model for every nurse. Quality of Life—A Nursing Challenge. 2 (3), 80-84.
King, D.E., & Bushwick, B. (1994). Beliefs and attitudes of hospital inpatients about faith healing and prayer. Journal of Family Practice. 39 (4), 349-352.
Koenig, H.G. (2000). Religion, spirituality, and medicine: Application to clinical practice. JAMA. 284 (13), 1708.
Koenig, H.G. (2002). Spirituality in patient care. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press.
Larimore, W.L. (2001). Providing basic spiritual care for patients: Should it be the exclusive domain of pastoral professionals? American Family Physician. 63 (1), 36-40.
Laukhuf, G., & Werner, H. (1998). Spirituality: The missing link. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. 30 (1), 60-67.
Lefevere, P. (2000). Health care's spiritual healers. National Catholic Reporter. 36 (40), 36.
O'Brien, M.E. (1999). Spirituality in nursing: Standing on holy ground. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Oyama, O., & Koenig, H.G. (1998). Religious beliefs and practices in family medicine. Archives of Family Medicine. 7 (5), 431-435.
Macritchie, I. (2001). The chaplain as translator. Journal of Religion and Health. 40 (1, 205-211.
Mayer, J. (1992). Wholly responsible for a part, or partly responsible for a whole? The concept of spiritual care in nursing. Second Opinion. 17 (3), 26-55.
Pilch, J.J. (1988). Wellness: Wellness Spirituality. Health Values. 12 (3), 28-31.
Quintero, C. (1993). Blood administration in pediatric Jehovah's Witness. Pediatric Nursing. 19 (1), 46-48.
Rodriguez, B., Rodriguez, D., & Casey, D.L. (2000). Spiritual needs and chaplaincy services. Medford, OR: Providence Health Care System.
Taylor, E.J. (2002). Spiritual care: Nursing theory, research, and practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
VandeCreek, L., & Burton, L.A. (Eds.) (1991). The chaplain-physician relationship. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc.
Wilt, K.L., & Smucker, C.J. (2001). Nursing the spirit: The art and science of applying spiritual care. Washington, D.C.: American Nurses Association.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Connelly, R., Light, K. Exploring the “New” Frontier of Spirituality in Health Care: Identifying the Dangers. Journal of Religion and Health 42, 35–46 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022212727599
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022212727599