Health care professionals who endeavour to work holistically face a number of questions about spirituality. What is meant by `spirituality’ as opposed to `religion’? What is its specific relevance to health care practice?
This accessible book provides answers to these questions and offers a model for personal and professional development. Gillian White sets out a framework within which health care professionals can discuss spirituality and equip themselves to respond appropriately to the spiritual concerns of their patient in daily practice. She draws on her experience of sharing and discussing spirituality and spiritual care with other health care professionals and proposes that multi-professional health care teams should talk about spirituality in challenging but safe environments to develop shared understanding of it, and to increase their confidence about integrating spiritual care into their daily practise.
This text is a useful contribution to the multi-disciplinary, whole-person approach in health care and will be of interest to all health care professionals, nursing staff and students in these fields.
Spis treści
Preface. Acknowledgements. 1. Introduction: Finding a voice for the spirit. 2. Spirituality and the holistic approach. 3. Learning about spirituality in the multi-professional team. 4. Developing opportunities to talk about spirituality. 5. Understanding spirituality. 6. Spiritual care. 7. Outcomes and opportunities. 8. Conclusion: The journey continues. Appendix 1: A short course on spirituality. Appendix 2: Suggested outline for groups wishing to explore spirituality. References. Further Reading. Index.
O autorze
Gillian White has been practising as a dietician since 1980 and is currently Acting Clinical Director of dietetics and nutrition at Nottingham City Hospital Trust. She also has a doctorate in philosophy. Gillian lives in a village in Derbyshire, UK.