Meeting the spiritual needs of hospital patients

Abstract

The holistic paradigm of human perception induces a special way of understanding the disease and the therapeutic process. The suffering resultant from experiencing the disease is observable in both the somatic and the spiritual areas, because both these aspects of existence permeate each other. It is essential for clinical practice to identify and address the needs of religious patients, as numerous scientific studies show a close association between the spiritual wellbeing and the health condition. It is currently assumed that faith in God can be an effective catalyst for the treatment process. The issue of meeting the spiritual needs of patients is an underestimated problem in modern medicine, because it is often forgotten that health means the mental, physical, social and economic welfare of the subject as well as spiritual wellbeing. The last factor is a prerequisite for the individual’s health to the same extent as the other ones. This should always be remembered both in clinical practice and in the education of medical students.Key words: disease, therapeutic process, spiritual wellbeing, spiritual needs