Spirituality and healthcare is an emerging field of research, practice and policy. Healthcare organisations and practitioners are therefore challenged to understand and address spirituality, to develop their knowledge and implement effective policy. This is the first reference text on the subject providing a comprehensive overview of key topics.

This book provides a condensed but comprehensive up-to-date overview of spirituality and its application to health care. The need for healthcare workers to provide spiritual care or meet patients’ spiritual needs is gaining increasing importance in nursing and midwifery policy at local, national and international level. Internationally, there is a growing belief in spirituality as a valid dimension of care. The book highlights a range of examples and case studies facilitating the practical application of the recommendations discussed. In addition to presenting new psychological perspectives, various activities throughout will encourage readers to form their own opinion on the issues covered. The suggestions for further reading and useful websites will also help readers interested in exploring specific areas in more depth. Combining contributions by authors from various disciplines, the book offers a valuable tool for qualified professional healthcare workers in practice, including nurses, social workers, doctors and chaplains. With its handy format, this practical pocket guide offers a faithful companion for practitioners.

"Positive Spirituality in Health Care" offers a fresh, holistic, and practical framework for the integration of spirituality in health care. Dr. Craigie proposes that excellent spiritual care arises from three arenas: the personal groundedness and spiritual well-being of clinicians, the clinical encouragement of patients' spiritual resources, and the organizational cultivation of spirited leadership and "soul." In an approachable and conversational tone, he presents case examples, interview transcripts, research perspectives, and pragmatic strategies that will enable readers to refine their skills in each of these three arenas. "Positive Spirituality in Health Care" will be a source of affirmation, refreshment, inspiration, and practical tools for all clinicians and health care leaders who are passionate about supporting patients' journeys toward healing and wholeness.

In the last fifteen years, the field of palliative care has experienced a surge in interest in spirituality as an important aspect of caring for seriously ill and dying patients. While spirituality has been generally recognized as an essential dimension of palliative care, uniformity of spiritual care practice has been lacking across health care settings due to factors like varying understandings and definitions of spirituality, lack of resources and practical tools, and limited professional education and training in spiritual care. In order to address these shortcomings, more than forty spiritual and palliative care experts gathered for a national conference to discuss guidelines for incorporating spirituality into palliative care. Their consensus findings form the basis of Making Health Care Whole. This important new resource provides much-needed definitions and charts a common language for addressing spiritual care across the disciplines of medicine, nursing, social work, chaplaincy, psychology, and other groups. It presents models of spiritual care that are broad and inclusive, and provides tools for screening, assessment, care planning, and interventions. This book also advocates a team approach to spiritual care, and specifies the roles of each professional on the team. Serving as both a scholarly review of the field as well as a practical resource with specific recommendations to improve spiritual care in clinical practice, Making Health Care Whole will benefit hospices and palliative care programs in hospitals, home care services, and long-term care services. It will also be a valuable addition to the curriculum at seminaries, schools of theology, and medical and nursing schools.

Reflecting on the current dialogue occurring between health care and ministry professionals, John Shea analyzes the unique spiritual interests of patients, caregivers, chaplains and health care organizations.

There has been a groundswell of interest in and recognition of the importance the spiritual part of a person's life has to play in coping with/recovery from illness as well as in the attainment and maintenance of health, wellbeing and quality of life. Addressing the spiritual part of life is now a key part of the health care professional's job but this raises the question of how this part of life can be assessed and catered for and how health care professionals might be equipped for this task. Wilf McSherry and Linda Ross's new edited text tackles this very issue with contributors from different disciplines (including nursing, medicine, theology and chaplaincy) and countries (UK, USA, Malta) offering their own perspectives on this important part of care. Each chapter, therefore, has its own unique style but is concerned with one outcome, to see spiritual assessment and care as an integral part of holistic care whatever the setting. Contents include: Introduction - Linda Ross & Wilfred McSherry Why the increasing interest in spirituality within healthcare? - Linda Ross The meanings of spirituality: a multi-perspectival approach to 'the spiritual' - John Swinton Recognising spiritual needs - Aru Narayanasamy Spiritual Assessment: definition, categorisation and features - Wilfred McSherry The spiritual history: an essential element of patient centred care - Christina Puchalski Indicator based and value clarification tools - Donia Baldacchino Assessing and improving the quality of spiritual care - Mark Cobb Dilemmas of spiritual assessment - Chris Johnson Considerations for the future of Spiritual Assessment - Linda Ross and Wilf McSherry

In this thoughtful book, Swinton explores the connections between mental health or illness and spirituality and draws on these to provide practical guidance for people working in mental health. He analyses a range of models of care provision that will enable carers to increase their awareness of aspects of spirituality in their caring strategies.

Faith, Spirituality, and Medicine promotes the integration of spirituality into medical care by exploring the connection between patient health and traditional religious beliefs and practices. This useful guide emphasizes basic, easily understood principles that will help health professionals apply current research findings linking religion, spirituality, and health. The author describes a biopsychosocial-spiritual model that emphasizes the need to view patients as physical, psychological, social, and spiritual beings if they are to be effectively treated and healed as whole persons.

Learn to respond effectively and appropriately to spiritual needs in a health care setting Spirituality, Health, and Wholeness: An Introductory Guide for Health Care Professionals explores the principles of spiritual care as applied to clinical practice. This book focuses specifically on the significance of spirituality in clinical settings with practical suggestions on how to apply these principles in the healing process. With chapters that begin with clear objectives and end with guided questions, this valuable textbook provides a framework that will aid health care facilities in addressing spiritual needs in a clinical setting and help faculty in mentoring students in the field. This practical guide will help you learn when and how to address spiritual issues in health care with patients for whom illness creates a crisis of faith as well as those for whom it provides support. Spirituality, Health, and Wholeness highlights not only the importance of health care professionals in providing emotional, mental, and spiritual care, but the necessity for them to address their own spirituality as well. The book includes the experiences and case studies of skilled authorities mostly from the Judeo-Christian or Judaic tradition who identify principles that they found to be important in working with patients from a wide diversity of spiritual traditions. Spirituality, Health, and Wholeness provides you with detailed information on: “Ministryhealing”—a model of wholeness and healing that incorporates an integrated view of humanity through the four domains: spiritual, emotional, physical, and social the physiological impacts of humor and hope on mood, the neuroendocrine hormones, and the immune system spiritual coping with trauma—an overview of the research literature and how to address the spiritual coping needs and concerns of patients the role of faith in providing meaning to physical illness and the importance of the role of the health care professional in first understanding, and then assisting the patient in their struggle to find meaning the key components of spiritual care to increase the efficacy of spiritual caregivers the bereavement process with regard to religious, cultural, and gender variations, and the role of the healthcare professional in providing support This book shows you not only how to meet the spiritual needs of patients from a diversity of faith traditions, but how to overcome challenges to your own spirituality, such as “difficult” patients and patients whose cultural outlook is so different from your own it causes discomfort. Spirituality, Health, and Wholeness will help all health care professionals who want to bring spirituality into their medical, dental, nursing, occupational therapy, or physical therapy practice.

Here is a selection of multiple choice questions and care studies designed for candidates for the Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (DRCOG). The 90 multiple choice questions cove all major areas of the syllabus and are accompanied by extended answers to help the revision process. The case studies are ideal preparation for the other sections of the examination as well as for general revision. This book will be suitable not only for the DRCOG (and other examinations such as the MRCOG) but also for anyone wanting to update and test their understanding of obstetrics and gynaecology.