Have you noticed spiritualitys growing role in health care?

For example, MidMichigan Health has a Spiritual Care program to serve the spiritual needs of all patients, as well as those of hospital staff and physicians. Earlier this year, it held its 13th (yes, thats 13th) annual Spiritual Care Seminar.

And, at its annual conference in New York this spring, the Healthcare Chaplaincy Network presented results of six studies that it said should be used to demonstrate the value-added of spiritual care including chaplaincy care to the healthcare systems that include and fund chaplaincy positions.

But what do we mean here by the word spirituality? And how might it impact a patients experience and actual health outcomes?

A broad definition of spirituality that is inclusive and intentionally not synonymous with religious was developed by a 2009 national Consensus Conference on palliative care sponsored by the Archstone Foundation.

It states: Spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred.

The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, founded in 2001, is a leading organization on education and clinical issues related to spirituality and health as its name suggests. Its founder and director, Dr. Christina Puchalski, participated in the development of a 2014 World Health Organization resolution on palliative (end of life) care that includes a reference to the spiritual aspects of patient care.

At a talk earlier this year at Western Michigan University, Puchalski focused on the importance of including spirituality in palliative care and how this palliative care model could be extended throughout, and thereby benefit, the entire spectrum of care.

In the face of loss or impending death, patients may ask questions like, What has meaning for me now? or What matters most in my life? Puchalski noted, however, that: We dont have to be dying to ask these questions. She spoke of care providers seeking how to help people, and not just those that are dying, but everybody who has suffering.

Puchalskis leading edge work of the last 20 years has been to bring more compassionate care to the field of medicine by focusing on the connection between spirituality and compassion.

See more here:

Cummings: Why spirituality is being included in health care