Spiritual History Research Articles

Australian doctors' perspectives on spiritual history-taking skills

Introduction: This original research examined the experience of Australian doctors using spiritual history-taking skills in holistic medical consultations and evaluated the support of Australian doctors for education on spiritual history-taking skills. Methods: General practice registrars and post-registrar graduate doctors, sourced primarily from the Hawkesbury Nepean region within NSW, Australia, completed an online survey. Excel data analysis tools were applied to analyse the quantitative results obtained. Line-by-line coding and manual analysis were applied to the free-text answers. Results: The survey was completed by 147 doctors practising medicine in Australia, a response rate of 24%. Registrars or residents-in-training accounted for 46%; 53% were post-registrar general practitioners. Most doctors (91%) recognised that spiritual care had some role in holistic medical care. Spirituality was included in medical consultations at least occasionally by 47% of doctors. However, only 21% felt confident with including spiritual history. Key barriers were insufficient time, lack of knowledge and lack of skills. Key facilitators included understanding other world views, knowledge of religions, awareness of own beliefs and basic communication skills. Spiritual history-taking skill education for all doctors was supported by 75%. Conclusions: The majority of Australian doctors who participated in this survey acknowledged the importance of spiritual history within holistic medical care, and many are incorporating this into their regular practice. Yet most doctors recognised a lack of knowledge and skills and desired further training, especially in spiritual history-taking skills. Inclusion of this in Australian medical education was strongly supported.

Postponing Armageddon? Christian Zionist and Palestinian Christian Responses to the Problem of Peace

Of all the problems of peacemaking and peacebuilding in the modern international system, none is as contentious a matter of religion and identity as that of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The weight of spiritual significance and history has caused more than one author to expound upon the way religion has uniquely marked this land. Foreign interest and interference in the allocation of privileges and ownership in the region have led one recent analyst to bemoan the plight of this "much too promised land." (Miller 2008) In a history of the conflict written long before its descent into the first and second intifadas and the expansion of the number of religious antagonists, David Smith noted that .the years after the 1967 [Arab-Israeli] war would defy a solution an spawn a new conflict between Arabs and Jews. In the tiny battleground of the West Bank — just 80 miles long and 26 miles wide — the two peoples would live together, contesting the same territory. Many on both sides would claim that it was granted to them by God... In the process, Arabs and Jews would be locked in a modern-day secular conflict, fuelled by age-old religious zealotry and bigotry. They would become prisoners of God. (Smith 1987: 4)

Human Development Index and its association with staff spiritual care provision: a Middle Eastern oncology study.

Although staff spiritual care provision plays a key role in patient-centered care, there is insufficient information on international variance in attitudes toward spiritual care and its actual provision. A cross-sectional survey of the attitudes of Middle Eastern oncology physicians and nurses toward eight examples of staff provision of spiritual care: two questionnaire items concerned prayer, while six items related to applied information gathering, such as spiritual history taking, referrals, and encouraging patients in their spirituality. In addition, respondents reported on spiritual care provision for their last three advanced cancer patients. Seven hundred seventy responses were received from 14 countries (25% from countries with very high Human Development Index (HDI), 41% high, 29% medium, 5% low). Over 63% of respondents positively viewed the six applied information gathering items, while significantly more, over 76%, did so among respondents from very high HDI countries (p value range, p < 0.001 to p = 0.01). Even though only 42-45% overall were positively inclined toward praying with patients, respondents in lower HDI countries expressed more positive views (p < 0.001). In interaction analysis, HDI proved to be the single strongest factor associated with five of eight spiritual care examples (p < 0.001 for all). Significantly, the Middle Eastern respondents in our study actually provided actual spiritual care to 47% of their most recent advanced cancer patients, compared to only 27% in a parallel American study, with the key difference identified being HDI. A country's development level is a key factor influencing attitudes toward spiritual care and its actual provision. Respondents from lower ranking HDI countries proved relatively more likely to provide spiritual care and to have positive attitudes toward praying with patients. In contrast, respondents from countries with higher HDI levels had relatively more positive attitudes toward spiritual care interventions that involved gathering information applicable to patient care.

식민자 2세 여성의 문학과 정신사 —모리사키 가즈에(森崎和江)를 중심으로—

Among the second generation colonizers who spent their youth in the colonized Joseon, there are some people who made their debut as authors in the Japanese society after the Japan''s surrender. There have been a little by little presentation of individual studies in the academic circle with the focus on male authors, but compare to such a trend, there has been little discussion in both Korea and Japan regarding the colonial experience of women and their activities in Japan after the WWII. Therefore, this article has paid attention to the literature expression and post-war activities of Morisaki Kazue, a woman writer from the second generation colonizer and contemplated on what was to be expressed through her works. In addition, it also has discussed on existential implication contained in her spiritual history formulated from residing in Japan and Korea. In conclusion, the colonial experience and memories as well as the process to formulate their identities have been sought around the works of Morisaki Kazue, followed by review on her poetry works and post-war activities to review the contents of her spirit history and view on life of Morisaki Kazue. Based on the foregoing review, under the contemporary view point and context, the discussion is made on the possibility of bridging the distinction and succession of memories on historic experience to the post-war generations of Japan that has not experienced any experience of lives in colonial and war situations.

Jewish lesbians: New work in the field

This introduction provides an overview of the field of Jewish lesbian studies, particularly in the United States and the English-speaking world. The author looks at the opening of the field of Jewish lesbian feminist work and then explores ways in which Jewish lesbians have been active in religious and spiritual initiatives, the arts, politics and history, as well as academic and organizational life, and matters of exclusion.

Personal Factors as Correlates and Predictors of Relapse in Nurses With Impaired Practice.

Relapse is the unauthorized use of any mind-altering substance, prescribed or not, after an individual has entered treatment for substance use (Darbro, 2011). Among nurses with impaired practice, the 5-year relapse rate is estimated at about 40% (Zhong, Kenward, Sheets, Doherty, & Gross, 2009), and the risk of relapse is highest in the first year of recovery (Clark & Farnsworth, 2006). Many factors influence susceptibility to relapse among nurses including presence of psychiatric comorbidities (Schellekens, de Jong, Buitelaar, & Verkes, 2015), history of criminal background (Zhong et al., 2009), spirituality and religiosity (Allen & Lo, 2010), and receiving prelicensure education in the United States (Waneka, Spetz, & Keane, 2011). The purpose of this study was to examine the correlates and predictors of relapse among nurses and to establish at what point they are most susceptible to relapse. This study was a retrospective secondary data analysis of nurses in Texas with impaired practice. The total number of participants was 1,553. The time it takes participants to enroll in a peer assistance program is negatively associated with length in program (p < .001). Conversely, there is a strong, positive, significant relationship between the number of days abstinent and the length in program (p < .001). More men compared with women (p = .037) were likely to be employed while participating in the program. Finally, participants who were referred for substance use disorders alone had 55% less risk of relapse. Those who used alcohol as their primary drug of choice had 1.7 times higher risk of relapse.

Turkish world and the epic «Manas»

This article discusses the essence of the epic «Manas», time and space, artistic and spiritual wealthand history of research. Also, the problem of epic tradition between the Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz peoplesis considered in terms of folklore. Writers, literary critics and researchers who contributed to the problems of epic tradition and Kazakh-Kyrgyz folklore were also widely discussed.

Kurdish Jama’at Menzil and Turkish Nationalism: Paradoxes of Turkey’s Domestic Policy in the Field of Culture and Religion

In this paper, the author attempts to outline a number of issues concerning political aspects of the Menzil community’s activities in Turkey. He also examines the actual problems of interconnections between authorities and Turkish jama’ats in Turkey’s current agenda. He traces back the spiritual genealogy and history of origin of the jama’at, as well as studies its growth at the times of Sheikh M. Erol and its current condition.

Prolegomena to the Christian Images Not Made by Human Hands

Images not made by human hands (acheiropoietai, Gr. ἀχειροποίηταιι) played a significant role in Byzantine spiritual culture and history. This paper discusses the emergence and rise of the acheiropoietai, which represented a most important and unusual element in the Byzantine Empire. The author analyses the chronological ancestors of Christian images not made by human hands, i.e. the so-called diipetes (Gr. Διιπετής), and proceeds to demonstrate the disagreements on the topic among some of the Christian Church Fathers. The imagines imperiales, i.e. effigies of Roman emperors, constituted a significant factor in the process leading to the later veneration of images not made by human hands. The most famous of the latter is the image from Edessa, also known in historiography as Mandylion of Edessa.

Teaching Third-Year Medical Students to Address Patients' Spiritual Needs in the Surgery/Anesthesiology Clerkship.

Despite many patients wanting physicians to inquire about their religious/spiritual beliefs, most physicians do not make such inquiries. Among physicians who do, surgeons are less likely than family and general practitioners and psychiatrists to do so. To address this gap, we developed a 60-minute curriculum that follows the Kolb cycle of experiential learning for third-year medical students on their surgery/anesthesiology clerkship. The session includes definitions of religion/spirituality, an overview of the literature on spirituality in surgery, a review of the FICA Spiritual History Tool, discussion of the role of the chaplain and the process of initiating a chaplain consult, and three cases regarding the spiritual needs of surgical patients. In total, 165 students participated in 10 sessions over 13 months. Of these, 120 students (73%) provided short-term feedback. Overall, 82% rated the session above average or excellent, and 72% stated the session was very relevant to patient care. To improve the session, students recommended assigning key readings, discussing more cases, role-playing various scenarios, inviting patients to speak, practicing mock interviews, and allowing for more self-reflection and discussion. Long-term feedback was provided by 105 students (64%) and indicated that the spirituality session impacted their attitudes about the role of religion/spirituality in medicine and their behaviors with patients. We have designed a successful session on spirituality for third-year students on their surgery/anesthesiology clerkship. Students reported it to be a positive addition to the curriculum. The session can be modified for other surgical subspecialties and specialties outside of surgery.

Quality improvement pilot of a palliative care model in an outpatient community cancer clinic setting.

138 Background: The need for outpatient based palliative care in community cancer clinics has been repeatedly identified, but poorly integrated. Cancer patients benefit from focused attention on the alleviation of symptoms related to either disease or treatment. Methods: A pilot program was developed for use in the outpatient community cancer clinic setting. This program sought to determine feasibility in this setting. It was limited to one medical oncologist and one palliative care APRN. Modifications were made in the electronic medical record to accommodate scheduling, documentation on a palliative care specific progress note and billing. Complete palliative care assessment included: symptom burden assessment, distress analysis using ESAS tool, 10 system physical exam, social, spiritual and emotional history and assessments. Ancillary services of chaplaincy and social services were also available. Home palliative care services were provided by a palliative care accredited home health agency. Initial consult visits were billed 99215, lasting 60 minutes. Follow up visits were billed 99214, lasting 30 min. Family conferences, with the patient present, were billed at the 99215. Results: Sample size was 44 patients: 23% pancreatic cancer, 13% upper gastrointestinal cancers, 13% lung cancer, 11% prostate cancer, 6% each colorectal, ovarian, and hematologic malignancies. The sample size was smaller than anticipated as not all eligible patients were referred. Reports from patients, families, and medical providers were all positive. Conclusions: The program will now be expanded to the entire San Luis Obispo Oncology and Hematology health clinic. This will include five medical oncologist and four advanced practice providers as referral sources. It is anticipated that at least one full time palliative care APRN will be needed. The model was found to be feasible with the additional support of a chaplin, clinic social services, and home health palliative care. The goal is to reduce symptom burden and improve quality of life.

Dissociative Symptoms and Anomalous Information Reception

The belief and prevalence of self-report anomalous information reception (AIR) is widespread worldwide. Some argue that these experiences are a dissociative type of pathology. However, researchers have found conflicting dissociative symptoms in people who claim AIR, with some studies demonstrating differences between those that do and do not endorse AIR experiences and other studies showing increased dissociative symptoms but not at a pathological level. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship of dissociative symptoms to self-report AIR experiences in a large secondary dataset of 2215 participants. Participants were mostly middle-aged, Caucasian, well-educated, not in relationship, middle- to upper-class adults from the USA who were raised Christian but now identify as “Spiritual but not religious.” The occupations were quite varied. The AIR experiences usually began in childhood, and most participants had family members with similar experiences. Clairempathy (87.9%) or the ability to feel the emotions of another person or non-physical entity and claircognizance (88.1%) or the ability to understand or know something without any direct evidence or reasoning process were the most commonly endorsed AIR experiences. They also had the highest weighted scores that summed AIR endorsement, and perceived strength, frequency, and accuracy. Pyrokinesis, levitation, and psychic surgery were quite rare. The mean Dissociation Experience Scale score for all participants was 15.4% ± 17.3. Variability in the total weighted AIR experience score (R-squared, 0.34) was accounted for by the Dissociation Experience Scale score, age, quadratic age, race, education, income, relationship status, family history of AIR experiences, childhood spirituality and importance, and current spirituality and importance (F (26, 1670) = 34.2, p < 0.00005). More research is needed to examine the impact of AIR on people’s lives and functionality when having AIR experiences.

Administering Spiritual Assessments with Refugees: An Overview of Conceptually Distinct Assessment Options

Abstract The global refugee population has increased dramatically over the last decade, suggesting helping professionals will increasingly encounter refugees in diverse practice settings. Despite the central role spirituality plays in the lives of many refugees, the extant research suggests most practitioners have received minimal training in addressing this critical topic. To assist helping professionals provide effective and ethical services to the culturally unique refugee population, this article conceptualizes assessment as a two-stage process in which a brief assessment is universally administered to help legitimize spirituality in practice settings followed, if clinically warranted, by a comprehensive assessment. Five conceptually distinct comprehensive assessment approaches are discussed along with their respective strengths and limitations: spiritual histories—a completely verbally based approach—and four diagrammatic models: spiritual lifemaps, genograms, eco-maps and ecograms. Developing familiarity with a variety of comprehensive approaches equips practitioners to select the approach that best fits the interests and needs of both refugees and practitioners. Engaging refugees in this manner assists practitioners to optimize services by identifying spiritual resources that can be leveraged to solve problems and eliminate barriers to effective service provision.

Integrating spirituality into the care of older adults

ABSTRACTWe examine how to sensibly integrate spirituality into the care of older adult medical and psychiatric patients from a multi-cultural perspective. First, definitions of spirituality and spiritual integration are provided. Second, we examine the logic that justifies spiritual integration, including research that demonstrates an association between religious/spiritual (R/S) involvement and health in older adults and research that indicates widespread spiritual needs in later life and the consequences of addressing or ignoring them. Third, we describe how and when to integrate spirituality into the care of older adults, i.e. taking a spiritual history to identify spiritual needs and then mobilizing resources to meet those needs. Fourth, we examine the consequences of integrating spirituality on the well-being of patients and on the doctor-patient relationship. Finally, we describe boundaries in addressing R/S issues that clinicians should be cautious about violating. Resources will be provided to assist with all of the above.

Training Physicians as Healers.

Spirituality is increasingly recognized as an essential element of patient care and health. It is often during illness that patients experience deep spiritual and existential suffering. With clinicians' care and compassion, patients are able to find solace and healing through their spiritual beliefs and values. This article chronicles a history of spirituality and health education, including the development of consensus-based clinical guidelines and competencies in health professions education that have influenced the curricular development.

All Catholics Are Spiritualists: The Boundary Work of Mary Gove Nichols and Thomas Low Nichols

From the 1840s to the 1870s, the first wave of Spiritualism swept across the Atlantic world. Many social reformers looked to messages from the spiritual realm to bolster their endeavors for this-worldly improvement. The Catholic Church, sensing diabolic powers at work, condemned the movement and its attendant reforms. It therefore surprised many when, in the mid-1850s, the spirits of dead Jesuits prompted Mary Gove Nichols and Thomas Low Nichols—both prominent Spiritualists and reformers—to convert to Catholicism. While the Nicholses are best known for their reform efforts, as their conversions suggest, they also led vibrant religious lives. By charting their religious biographies and using previously neglected writings, this article demonstrates that the Nicholses abandoned neither Spiritualism nor reform upon their conversion. Rather, they argued that both séance supernaturalism and social reformation should be pursued within the Catholic Church. In this way, the Nicholses challenged the church's attempts to demarcate acceptable spirituality, intentionally crossing and blurring received religious boundaries. In doing so, they redefined what it meant to be Catholic in order to accommodate their experiences and commitments. Their story recasts the history of Spiritualism and Catholicism as a boundary contest and provides a detailed case study of the process of religious hybridization.

Religiosity/Spirituality Matters on Plant-Based Local Medical System.

Religiosity/spirituality can affect health and quality of life in myriad ways. Religion has been present since the first moments of our evolutionary history, whether it is understood as a byproduct or as an adaptation of our cognitive evolution. We investigated how religion influences medicinal plant-based local medical systems (LMSs) and focuses on how individual variation in the degree of religiosity/spirituality affects the structure of LMSs. The knowledge of people about their medical systems was obtained through the free-listing technique, and level of religiosity/spirituality was calculated using the Brazilian version of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality. We employed a Generalized Linear Model to obtain the best model. Religiosity/spirituality is predictive of structural and functional aspects of medicinal plant-based LMSs. Our model encourages a discussion of the role of religion in the health of an individual as well as in the structure of an individual's support system. Religiosity/spirituality (and the dimensions of Commitment and Religious and Spiritual History, in particular) act to protect structural and functional elements of LMSs. By providing protection, the LMS benefits from greater resilience, at both the individual and population levels. We suggest that the socialization process resulting from the religious phenomenon has contributed to the complexity and maintenance of LMSs by means of the interaction of individuals as they engage in their religious observances, thus facilitating cultural transmission.

Review: Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America by Douglas Osto and Sacred Bliss: A Spiritual History of Cannabis by Mark S. Ferrara

Review: <i>Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America</i> by Douglas Osto and <i>Sacred Bliss: A Spiritual History of Cannabis</i> by Mark S. Ferrara

Approaching Spirituality Using the Patient-Centered Clinical Method.

Although the scientific literature already suggests the importance of spiritual care in clinical practice, this topic has been apart from the routine of many practitioners, and many physicians still have difficulties in how to carry out such approaches in the clinical setting. This article reflects on the importance of spirituality in the health-disease process and provides an approach to the biopsychosocial-spiritual care in the practice of primary care. In addition, the aim of the authors is to propose a spiritual approach based on the patient-centered clinical method. This method has been used for clinical communication and can be powerful for exploring spiritual history. Thus, using a fictional case scenario as a practical example, the authors guide readers to understand the patient-centered approach they propose.

Spiritual Values Learning Through History and Archeaology in Egypt

Learning is a core in educational process. In the process of education, spiritual values can be implemented through various method in the class interaction to improve spiritual belief of students. One of subject material in curriculum which can be implemented to grow and to improve spiritual values is history and archaeology. To listen story, to read it, and to come to visit and observe the history places such as in Egypt gives strengthen sense of spiritual to human kind. For instance, there are lot of historical places spread out in Egypt which can be grow and improve the sense of someone spirituality, i.e. story of Pharaohs, which explained the journey of Moses in the Qur’an. The existence of Nile river, Cairo and Giza, the mosque of Amr bin Ash story, and some other places in Egypt gives spiritual history from ancient time. The spiritual values are also included in aim main goal of Islamic education and The National Educational Goal of Indonesia. In the holly Qur’an, Allah says many stories to be taken the lesson as the guidance to the right and safe ways. In university level, the students who have enough in psychologically and age to go around the world can see directly and observe the place the histories are happened. So, the focus of the article is how to build and growth the spiritual values in someone personality through strategy of learning in historical subject matter. Data were collected through observation to the place where the histories are happened and using NLP (neuro-linguistic programing) as communication strategy as well, interviews and documentary study. Data were analyzed qualitatively. The result of this article is through history and archaeology, people can take the lessons to grow their belief and faith to Allah. To have faith in one God, to struggle in right way, to be patient facing the trial of life, to have critical intelligence, are as some of the spiritual values stated.