Spiritual Beliefs and Barriers Among Managed Care Practitioners

Abstract

Managed care practitioners in a time constrained setting were spiritual themselves and believed this to be important to patients. Respondents indicated barriers of time and training to implementing these beliefs. Comparing responses from our group to those in other published surveys on clinician spirituality, we find similar concerns. Clinician education may overcome these barriers and improve ability to more fully meet their patients' expressed needs regarding spirituality and beliefs.

Doctors discussing religion and spirituality: A systematic literature review

“…Most common was insufficient time. 9,18,28,30,33,36,[43][44][45][46][49][50][51]57,59,62,69,73,79,82,83 However, when Ellis and colleagues 6 looked at frequency of spiritual interactions between physicians and their hospitalized patients, there was no difference in conversation frequency between standard and 'step-down care' hospitals, despite the longer length of stay (average >11 days) at the latter. Resident doctors in another study did not mention time as a barrier so much as a factor to be managed.…”

Spirituality Within the Patient-Surgeon Relationship

“…32 Although several studies have reported that patients rely upon religion, spirituality, and faith during times of need when coping with illness or injury, other studies have determined that those needs were unmet by both clergy and clinicians. 29,31,33,34 That may be a consequence of multiple factors, including the perceived biases, dichotomies, and prejudices of the sciences versus the humanities, the secular versus the sacred, the self versus the society, and the imperatives of the cure of disease versus the relief of suffering. Additionally, the ability, capacity, inclination, and volition of the patient, the clergy, and the clinician vis-à-vis religiosity and spirituality, and its role in the delivery of health care, may be operative.…”

Religiosidade e espiritualidade em oncologia: concepções de profissionais da saúde

“…A falta de treinamento e de habilidade em identificar as demandas dos usuários, assim como o receio de influenciar as crenças dos pacientes, constituem barreiras percebidas pelos próprios profissionais, que dificultam a abordagem da religiosidade/espiritualidade nos atendimentos (Balboni et al, 2007;McCauley et al, 2005;Monroe et al, 2003).…”

“…Em contraponto, diversos estudiosos ressaltam benefícios da religiosidade/espiritualidade para o enfrentamento de doenças, justificando a inclusão da temática nas intervenções em saúde (Balboni et al, 2007;McCauley et al, 2005;Monroe et al, 2003;Panzini & Bandeira, 2007;Saad, Masiero, & Battistella, 2001). Para alguns autores, isto propicia a compreensão das crenças dos pacientes e sua relação com a doença, permitindo detectar interferências negativas na adesão aos tratamentos (Koenig, 2006;Post, Puchalski, & Larson, 2000).…”

“…A falta de treinamento e de habilidade em identificar as demandas dos pacientes impelem a negação ou a rejeição da dimensão espiritual (McCauley et al, 2005;Monroe et al, 2003). Ambas as nutricionistas relataram não se sentirem capacitadas para lidar com a temática religiosa/espiritual, realçando a tradição biomédica da categoria.…”