By
Owusu Benson
Spiritual care is care that recognises and
responds to the needs of the human spirit when faced with trauma, ill health or
sadness. It can include the need for meaning, for self-worth, to express oneself,
for faith support, perhaps for rites or prayer or sacrament, or simply for a
sensitive listener. ‘Spiritual care begins with encouraging human contact in
compassionate relationships, and moves in whatever direction needs require’
(NHS Education for Scotland, 2009).
My name is Owusu Benson, a registered
general nurse at the Princess Marie Louise Hospital, Accra Ghana and the
President of the Quik Medical Consult, a group made up of health professionals with
the aim of reaching out to the world through health education. For years now,
it look as if spiritual care in the course of treating patient’s that comes to
the health facility has gone into extinction hence the urgent need to make it
part of our practice because it may be the only therapy the patient may need to
recover from his or her ailment.
Ghana is a country located in the western
part of Africa with a population of approximately twenty five million, it has a
very rich culture and is composed of three main religious groups; Christians,
Muslim and traditional religions.
According to the 2010 population census
61.2% of Ghanaians are Christians, 32.5% Islamic and 3.3% traditionalist. All
these religions believe in the supreme God but worship him through different
means. I must emphasise that Ghanaians and for that matter Africans as a whole
are very religious and believe that whatever happens to them has a spiritual
basis and they also believe that the supernatural has a role in their healing
process. In a predominantly Christian country it is not uncommon for Christian nurses’
or doctors to assume that patients under their care are Christians. A further
major problem I identified was that the spiritual aspects of nursing /medical care
have long been neglected, although most patients seem to draw strength from
their belief when they are ill. Patients who seek spiritual care from their
deity during admission are often seen as the ‘difficult ones’.
Delving into the issue of spiritual care, I
must emphasize that, spirituality is not:
·
Allabout imposing your beliefs
and practices. If you are a Christian nurse or doctor you don’t have to force
what you have been taught at church on your patients’ who for example are
Muslims. A typical example is asking the patient who is a traditionalist under
your care to say the ‘Lord’s Prayer’
·
Spiritual care is not an
opportunity to use your position to try to convert the patient from one
religion to the other.
·
Spiritual care is not a
specialist activity. This means that you don’t have to attain a doctorate in
spiritual care to provide it. By understanding the faith of the patient you can
meet or assist in meeting the deepest needs
·
It is not the sole
responsibility of the chaplain but a collaborative effortof all, staff, family
and friends
What then constitute spiritual care?
Spiritual care is all about:
·
Hope and strength – when a
patient is sick, they put all their hope in their object of worship believing
that they can draw strength and get divine healing from it
·
Forgiveness – I cared for a
patient who always said she was going through her ailment because she committed
adultery. She was thus always depressed. It seemed none of the treatment regimen
was working for this woman until she narrated the incident to me.
Because she was a Christian it made it
easier for me to share the scripture on what says about forgiveness. Within a
week, we noticed improvement in her health status and she was discharged the
following week. When she was convinced that God had forgiven her upon confession,
she had peace in herself and this brought back a smile on her face. This is an
example of true spiritual care when providing true spiritual care it is
important to have a belief in oneself and in others. Recognising that for some,
a belief in a deity, certain values, love and relationships, morality,
creativity and self-expression are all an integral part of their spirituality.
The nurse or doctor caring for the patient onadmission must observe and
identify clues as to whether the patient has an underlying spiritual need.
Examples of such clues are distressed patients, patients who are sad or
tormented and those who constantly ask spiritual questions.
Should
health workers take into consideration the spiritual needs of patients and
address it as such, it can reduce their stay on admission.
Reference
-Royal college of nursing handbook on
spiritual care
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