Walter T
Department of Sociology, University of Reading, UK.
Palliat Med. 1997 Jan;11(1):21-30. doi: 10.1177/026921639701100103.
The development of holistic, multidisciplinary care of the terminally ill has prompted discussion of what spiritual care might mean, but how can this be done in what is largely a secular context? This paper analyses the three options. (1) The idea of the hospice as a religious community enables total care to be given, but conflict can develop as such institutions expand and take on less devout staff. (2) An organizationally less problematic approach, fitting a widespread understanding of religion, is that only some people are religious and they may be referred by staff to the chaplain--but this undermines the goal of holistic care. (3) Recent discussion of spiritual needs, however, argues that everyone has a spiritual dimension, entailing a search for meaning. All staff can help in this area, so this approach is welcomed by nurses seeking to practice holistically and also by chaplains seeking to expand their domain, but it also has certain costs. The article concludes by raising some problems that may emerge if this third approach becomes institutionalized.
对绝症患者进行全面、多学科护理的发展引发了关于精神关怀可能意味着什么的讨论，但在很大程度上是世俗化的背景下，该如何做到这一点呢？本文分析了三种选择。（1）临终关怀院作为一个宗教团体的理念使得能够提供全面护理，但随着这类机构的扩大并接纳不太虔诚的工作人员，可能会产生冲突。（2）一种在组织层面问题较少、符合对宗教的普遍理解的方法是，只有一些人信教，他们可能会被工作人员转介给牧师——但这破坏了全面护理的目标。（3）然而，最近对精神需求的讨论认为，每个人都有精神层面，这意味着对意义的探寻。所有工作人员都可以在这方面提供帮助，因此这种方法受到寻求全面实践的护士以及寻求扩大其领域的牧师的欢迎，但它也有一定代价。文章最后提出了如果第三种方法制度化可能会出现的一些问题。
