Thursday, 15 January 2009
-
Is Faith Needed in Medicine?
by Nurse Jenna 
I keep my religious beliefs to myself at work. This was not difficult when I made cappuccinos at Starbucks, but I work in a profession where life and death are part of the job. I also am in a silent minority in that I am agnostic, a belief (and yes, it is a belief) that is frowned upon by a very vocal majority that believes in a higher being. However, I understand that peoples’ faith plays a large part in defining who they are. It also changes how they perceive the powers that influence what will help them get better when they are ill, or through a time of grief when they are struggling to understand the death of a loved one when they are left to live with the grief. I am not insensitive to how religion impacts peoples’ lives and health, even though it is certainly very different than my own.
On several occasions, I have been the first person in the room with the expectant parents to discover that their near-term baby has no heart beat. Everyone struggles in their own way to understand how and why this could have happened. Some look to God for an explanation, I usually suspect a tangled umbilical cord or a placenta that has begun to pull away from the uterus. I guess you could say that science and nature are my religion—my explanation for why things are the way they are.
I am not alone in the medical community in that we, in much higher percentages than the normal population, do not believe in a divine creator. I do not know whether this tendency drives us into the field because we want to better understand what we think has a complicated explanation, or if we become this way as we deal with the challenges of having to make sense of a lot of senseless pain we see every day. A recent study showed that 57% of randomly selected people believe that God’s intervention could save a dying family member even if doctors had deemed it hopeless. Less than 20% of medical workers feel a miracle of God could change an outcome.
While I believe that medical providers are capable of compassionate care despite their religion or lack of, I think that it is a completely legitimate request to find a provider who shares your beliefs if you feel it will be fundamental to how you plan to deal with issues surrounding your healthcare. This may not always be easy to do, and you may sometimes sacrifice a doctor with stronger medical skills in order to have one who shares your religious convictions. Regardless, if you believe in miracles it is helpful for the people taking care of you, or your loved ones to know that. It will help everyone understand why you may be making decisions that seem to go against all medical suggestions and evidence when a situation seems futile.
Do you believe a higher being can influence a medical outcome? Is it important to you that your providers believe in God?
-
recommend
- recs 0
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to momaroo's Momaroo Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in momaroo's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
About the Author
-
- From: NurseJenna
- Name: NurseJenna
- About Me: Hi Everyone, I'm a Registered Nurse in labor and delivery and also a Family Nurse Practitioner. I'm here to offer any advice or answer questions about pregancy, labor and delivery, or your newborn. I hope your find my suggestions helpful whether you are awaiting your little one, or trying to get a good night's sleep after coming home. Please feel free to ask me any questions and I will do my best to get you the answer, or at least let you know where to find it.
Stats: This Week All Time Posts: 0 22 Views: 0 50665 Comments: 0 774 View all posts by NurseJenna
Comments (16)
Yes to both questions
I think you need to trust your physician and his/her orders, and I think that faith in God lowers stress and stuff like that. Even if you're not "religious", faith can only help.
My daughter's pediatrician holds the same beliefs as my family, but my OB does not (that I know of). I don't think it's that important to have a doctor who believes the same, but it would be nice to know they are on the same page as you.
Taking religion completely out of the equation for a moment. Unless the patient is knowledgeable in the art of medicine, are they not acting upon faith that the doctor knows what s/he is talking about?
Back to the questions. Can a higher being influence the health of a patient, sure why not. If that is the case it shouldn't matter if your providers do because the higher being will influence them. I'll just take the most skilled practitioner I can find and if that higher being decides to help out, I'm not going to complain.
@Not_a_real_site@xanga - Good answer. :) Pretty much what I was going to say.
In my experience, caring and compassion can bridge ANY and ALL differences in religious beliefs between providers and patients.
Yes! And I've seen it work. ;)
Its not important to me that my doctor believe in the same things as i do. i do believe in a higher being and i believe in miracles. i dont think that a doctors beliefs make them any more or less of a doctor. i believe in miracles, that great things beyond explanation happen. i dont directly go to my higher being to question why things do or dont go as planned though. and one thing thats a little different about me is that im sketchy about how i feel about the power of prayer. i feel like one persons prayer is enough, i dont think you need a prayer chain to have a higher being hear you. whatever is meant to happen to you, will happen whether you pray about it or 750 people pray about it.
Yes, I believe a 'higher being' can influence medical outcomes and yes, I would prefer that my providers have similar beliefs as I do. However, if I like a dr otherwise, but they don't have the same beliefs as I - I am not going to decide only because of this not to go with them.
It may be true that higher percentages of the medical community do not believe in a divine creator than the general public ... but there are also many stories of medical professionals whose minds have been changed when they see/experience something 'miraculous' happen that simply can not be explained by science or nature.
Yes, I believe that God can and does work miracles in otherwise hopeless medical (and other) situations if He so chooses. And I would prefer that my Dr. share my belief in God, or at least a 'higher power', but that said, I still would want a doctor attending me, regardless of his beliefs, and not a 'faith healer'.
I believe in the healing power of Jesus Christ - I've experienced it personally and seen it in other's lives on more than one occasion. I've seen too much to ever go back to not believing.
That being said, I do not think that it is of strong importance for my healthcare provider to believe as I do - I am going to them for medical advice, not spiritual. Having a doctor that believes as I do would be a benefit, but not a necessity.
I do believe God could intervene in any situation. I really enjoy when my medical providers share my religious beliefs mainly because it is a comfort. I don't feel like God is going to heal me or whatever specifically b/c I choose a religious doctor but in those times when things do go wrong it's nice to be able to talk openly with your doctor or nurse about God. Plus when thing go right you can rejoice in that blessing together on a different level than you might with an atheist or agnostic medical professional.
To me Christianity is a brotherhood/sisterhood. It's a family and family is just comforting.
God makes people and heals people.
People who are skilled in medicine move things out of the way to make healing possible. Patients who believe God made them and can heal them also speed healing by mentally cooperating and spiritually cooperating. The opposite of physically, mentally and spiritually cooperating is stress. And there are lots and lots of medical studies that prove that stress causes illnesses of various types.
Yes I want a doctor and I have one, who believes,walks and talks with a personal God as his saviour and lord.
I've been in situations which medical doctors said they did not know what to do about, they could treat the syptoms but they could not heal the person and I've seen God heal and I've seen situations where God chose not to heal the person in those same kinds of situations. In both cases it was valuable to have a close relationship with the creator of that person.
A great book on this topic is None of Those Diseases. I just finished rereading it.
Yes, I believe it is possible. Oddly, it makes no difference to me if my medical care providers believe in a higher power or not. I am more concerned with their skills than their faith.
I am a medical professional and yes I do believe in God and in miracles. My medical training only reinforced my beliefs; there are scientific explanations for things but there are no explanations for how the universe and life came to be and to be so intricately designed. I have yet to talk to a scientist that can take me back to zero hour and explain how it all came to be in the first place.
Yes, I prefer my caregivers to have a belief in God. There are times when help beyond human capabilities are needed and I have been there when a medical professional reached the limit of scientific knowledge and asked for guidance from God and it was provided to the betterment of the patient. I want the people entrusted with my medical outcome to have access to ALL resources.
Aside from the comfort factor, emotional aspect, brotherhood and a feeling of belonging, there is a lot to be gained from communicating with the One that designed everything when we are up against our puny human knowledge, which at best can only be described as "the discovery " of what was put into motion long ago.
I can't imagine questioning my healthcare provider about their faith. I kind of believe that is personal. I am more concerned with how they treat me as a patient and their skills as a doctor than anything else. I am a nurse and I would say that I fall into the same category as you. Life and death happen no matter how many prayers are said and usually you can go back and find a reason. I work in labor and delivery and it is always sad to see babies in dire situations but sometimes no matter what we do babies still come to early and don't make it. Do miracles happen yes but they don't happen that often. While I am uncertain that prayers work I absolutely support my patients and their needs for the comfort that they find in it.