RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Religion, Spirituality, and the Practice of Medicine
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 370
OP 376
DO 10.3122/jabfm.17.5.370
VO 17
IS 5
A1 Daaleman, Timothy P.
YR 2004
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/17/5/370.abstract
AB Physicians are confronted with new information from the popular media, peer-reviewed journals, and their patients regarding the association of religious and spiritual factors with health outcomes. Although religion and spirituality have become more visible within health care, there are considerable ethical issues raised when physicians incorporate these dimensions into their care. Spiritualities are responsive to patient needs by offering beliefs, stories, and practices that facilitate the creation of a personally meaningful world, a constructed “reality” in the face of illness, disability, or death. It is largely through narrative that physicians incorporate into the health care encounter the spiritualities that are central to their patients’ lived experience of illness and health.