Healing Hospitals

Healthcare has continued to evolve. Hospitals are frequently seeking to provide better avenues to healthcare for their patients. One particular modality that has been suggested and instituted is the paradigm of the healing hospital. A healing hospital is a particular type of hospital that focuses not only on improvement of health but focuses on healing through the dynamics of spirituality. Healing hospitals also have been noted to be active members in lowering the need for costly healthcare as a result of their multifold approach to wellbeing.

Healing hospitals have a formalized approach to the concept of healing. This approach is addressed through three specific components: technology, physical design features and an overall culture of care. Technology is defined as "advances that include the installation of separate elevators for patient transportation [than the typical elevators for usually hospital visitors], enhanced physician access to tests and superior patient room entertainment systems. Physical facility design involves identification of physical enhancements to facilities that impact patient comfort and experience [directly]. Culture [speaks to] how patients are handled in a healing hospital versus one that has not yet achieved that level of excellence" (Chapman, 2007). In essence, healing hospitals promote health, the ever-changing aspects of technology and a holistic technique. 

Healing hospitals have been shown to have a more personalized touch. Many nurses have stated that the current modus operandi of hospitals has often created a depersonalization of healthcare. As a result of this analysis from the field of nursing, Puchalski & McSkimming (2006) created what was known as the healing environment, which sought to create a spiritual wholeness in the patient in addition to them being regularly treated. The researchers felt that patients deserved an aspect of spirituality in their health care given the presence of chapels in hospitals and the positivity that spirituality promotes (Dunn, 2010). Thus, healing hospitals promote a refreshing and rejuvenation of patients because it endorses optimism and joy accompanied with positive thoughts.

So why isn't the current approach working? Why the need for healing hospitals? Spirituality distinguishes that people are more than just the physical; therefore, there must be an alliance of body, mind and spirit when a person is treated. Currently, Western medicine is definitively derived from the scientific approach. In other words, science is the cure to everything and nothing else can be examined when seeking to help individuals attain healing. The scientific approach reasons that knowledge of theories and models can alleviate ailments and that through methods and advanced medication, individuals can heal and become well. The delivery of care when viewed through this prism is more of curing the symptoms rather than the actual cause of a disease. The spiritual approach looks at healing the total person rather than one component or facet (Hummel et.al, 2008; Michael, 2002). This has led many to take issue with healing hospitals because there has often been heavy discussion regarding the line between religion and spirituality.

It is true that spirituality is highly personal. Where religion looks at dogma and creeds associated with a plethora of belief systems, spirituality is the basis for emotional and mental health for many individuals; therefore, it can be applied to the field of medicine. Where many have blurred the line between religion and spirituality is in the humanistic expressions of faith associated. Religion aspires to dominate and create more tear, while spirituality is concerned with faith and one's inner peace, comfort and support. Spirituality is multidimensional, while religion is more aligned with one specific element associated with the beliefs it is asserting. This of course, has presented and continues to present several challenges to healing hospitals. One primary issue is the separation of church and state. Many feel that spiritual practices should be kept out of hospitals. In a study performed by Harding, Flannelly, Galek & Tannenbaum (2008) they noted that many chaplains and pastors often felt that the adoption of spiritual constructs in medicine completely undermines the distinct characteristics of spirituality, while some felt that a combination of these efforts would be beneficial (Ashcraft et. al, 2010; Hummel et.al, 2008; Dunn, 2010). Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain, as it stands currently whether healing hospitals when examined from the conventional paradigm, are viable.

To further illustrate the ways and other nursing strategies in which healing hospitals are a viable way for wellbeing, many proponents have offered up biblical scripture. By doing this, it reinforces to a certain extent, how spirituality is intertwined with healing. Through the dynamic of prayer and meditation, one can achieve the positivity they are seeking and in turn, the approach that many nurses and medical professionals are becoming slanted towards will have some merit. In Exodus 23:25, it states "you shall worship the Lord your God, and [he] will bless your bread and your water; and [he] will take sickness away from among you" (Exodus 23:25 KJV). While this scripture is more definitive in how it expresses a sole intent to worship God, it does show a viability of having the presence of God in one's life, and thus, in the medical arena as an extension of general care.

The spirituality argument that is rolled into the healing hospital approach is one of hope. Those that suggest this paradigm as valid despite the many challenges that the medical community feels it consists of, note that there is a mental sustenance associated with spirituality. Patients will undoubtedly be able to maintain their inspiration with the spiritual services offered in addition to basic medical care. "If people express interest in gaining spiritual competencies, some practices that have [been] found helpful such as contemplation, reading inspirational books, journal writing, spending time in nature, taking part in religious services or volunteering services" (Ashcraft et.al, 2010) will be beneficial. It can be reasoned that the majority of patients practice some form of religion or at a minimum believe in a creator of some sort. Therefore, the healing hospital is a viable approach and can become a central force within the medical field.

Perhaps the greatest potential of the healing hospital is that mental shift that occurs in the person who is ill irrespective of their level of ailment. While innovative in context, since the year 2000, numerous studies have examined spirituality and its effects on health. Substantial evidence points to the fact that religion influences health. Religion has been shown to heavily influence medical decisions and treatments, and as a result of this, the need for training to integrate spirituality into patient care has been increasingly recognized. By 2006, over 100 of the 141 medical institutions in the United States and Canada had courses related to spirituality and health concerns (Miller and Thorsen, 2003; Curlin et.al, 2006). It can be said that medical professionals and nurses need role development and to become more involved in the ever-changing paradigms of the clinical arena by seriously considering adopting the healing hospital approach. 

Healing hospitals are philosophical in their overall undercurrent. With consideration given to the mind, body and spirit, the merging of traditional medicine with that of spirituality, ushers in a brand-new way of conceptualizing what medicine is and what it is concerned with in its application of treating patients. Healthcare has always been about treating individuals and with the healing hospital, perhaps there will be further enrichment in understanding wholeheartedly, how beneficial spirituality will be once it is incorporated into mainstream medicine rather than being observed as an alternative or complementary methodology. Simply put, spirituality reallocates the missing pieces of a person that the disease or ailment has misaligned.

References

Ashcroft, L., Anthony, W. A., & Mancuso, L. L. (2010, July). Is spirituality essential for recovery? Behavioral Healthcare, 30(7), 7-8.

Chapman, E. (2007). Loving care: Building the healing hospital in America. Nashville, TN: Vaughn Printing.

Curlin, F. A., Chin, M. H., Sellergren, S. A., Roach, C. J., & Lantos, J. D. (2006). The Association of Physicians "Religious Characteristics with Their Attitudes and Self-Reported Behaviors Regarding Religion and Spirituality in the Clinical Encounter. Medical Care, 44, 446-53.

Dunn, L. (2010, Fall). Creating healing environments: A challenge for nursing. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and Health Care, 10(2), 3-4.

Exodus 23:25 KJV. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+23%3A25&version=KJV

Hummel, L., Galek, K., Murphy, K. M., Tannenbaum, H. P., & Flannelly, L. T. (2008). Defining Spiritual Care: An Exploratory Study. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy,15, 40-51.

Michael, R. S. (2002, Fall). Inquiry & scientific method. Indiana University. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~educy520/sec5982/week_1/inquiry_sci_method02.pdf

Miller, W. R., & Thorsen, C. E. (2003). Spirituality, Religion and Health: An Emerging Research Field. American Psychologist, 38, 33.