Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, Camden, NJ, USA.
Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ, USA.
J Relig Health. 2021 Jun;60(3):2109-2124. doi: 10.1007/s10943-020-01126-0. Epub 2021 Jan 2.
One of the many roles a physician provides to their patients is compassion and comfort, which includes tending to any psychological, spiritual, and religious needs the patient has. The goal of this pilot study was to explore whether religious or spiritual values of physicians at an urban academic hospital affect how physicians care for and communicate with their patients, especially when dealing with death, dying, and end-of-life matters. After surveying 111 inpatient physicians at an academic hospital, we found that 92% of physicians are extremely or somewhat comfortable having end-of-life discussions. We also found that physician religiosity and spirituality are not necessarily required for discussing death and dying and that the religious and spiritual values of the physician do not correlate with their ability to have end-of-life conversations with the patient. We found no difference between years in practice and comfort discussing religion and spirituality, though we did find that, of the physicians who believe they are comfortable talking to patients about religion or belief systems, most of them had more than five end-of-life patients in the past 12 months. Lastly, referrals to Palliative Care or pastoral services were not impacted by the physician's religious or spiritual beliefs. Future studies can explore how religious beliefs may more subtly influence physicians' interactions with patients, patient satisfaction, and physician well-being and resilience.
医生对患者的众多作用之一是同情和安慰,其中包括满足患者的任何心理、精神和宗教需求。本试点研究的目的是探讨城市学术医院的医生的宗教或精神价值观是否会影响医生对患者的护理和沟通方式,尤其是在处理死亡、临终和生命末期问题时。在对一家学术医院的 111 名住院医生进行调查后,我们发现 92%的医生非常或有些愿意进行临终讨论。我们还发现,医生的宗教信仰和精神信仰并不一定需要讨论死亡和临终问题,而且医生的宗教和精神价值观与他们与患者进行临终谈话的能力无关。我们没有发现执业年限与讨论宗教和精神问题的舒适度之间有差异,但我们确实发现,在认为自己能够与患者就宗教或信仰体系进行交谈的医生中,大多数人在过去 12 个月中都有超过 5 名临终患者。最后,向姑息治疗或牧师服务的转介不受医生宗教或精神信仰的影响。未来的研究可以探讨宗教信仰如何更微妙地影响医生与患者的互动、患者满意度以及医生的幸福感和适应力。