Patients who are facing illness and uncertainty often find themselves reflecting on the bigger questions in life, and the core beliefs or principles they live by. These convictions, religious or otherwise, are integral to a patient’s identity, and consequently to their most fundamental emotional and spiritual needs. Perceptive clinicians have proved that, by recognising and working with their patients’ spiritual requirements, they have been able to significantly improve their patients’ experience in the medical setting.
In this book, these select clinicians reveal their medical perspective on the importance of bringing together the body and soul for effective healthcare. Sharing their own personal styles of enquiry into individuals’ requirements, they explain how they identify their patients’ needs, and how they utilise this knowledge to advise the rest of their team and enhance their ability to provide excellent, attentive care.
Tabella dei contenuti
Introduction – Peter Wells. 1. Spirituality and the ethics of professional responsibility – Bobbie Farsides. 2. General practice: The soul of the matter – Jo De Bono. 3. Mental health – Tim Ojo and Andy Nutall. 4. Gynaecology: Care for the whole – Peter Larson-Disney. 5. Neonatal care – Cathy Garland. 6. Paediatric: The unfinished consultation – Somnath Mukhopadhyay. 7. Radiotherapy, head and neck: Chicken or nuns – Pat Shields. 8. Dementia: How the humanities can help us confront the demons of practice – Muna Al-Jawad. 9. Renal: Advanced kidney failure – Adam Mac Diarmaid-Gordon. 10. Stroke: The heart of the matter – Nicola Gainsborough. 11. Palliative care in the community: Looking in ‘hidden places’ – assessing spiritual pain and distress – Nigel Spencer and Rachel Reed. Afterword – Peter Wells.