Without the White Coat
Back to the CROSS... the missing link
We may have advocated on total patient "care" and "healing" of our patients, but as physicians we tend to forget one aspect of that "care", we may all wanted to be become " good Christian doctors", but missing deep inside us is the commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. Life will always be a little bit lighter if we have our Lord beside us every time we render our services to our patients. Back then in medical school I may have envisioned that on each of my patient's faces that comes to me for consultation I will always viewed the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, thus could have some changes in y life. I don't want to be a hypocrite, but we all need financial and monetary things to get our lives going everyday, it is hard to bring a Holy Bible in the cash register of the supermarket and render it as a form of payment, but in spite of some predicament, challenges, and tragedies in "Life", I always feel and believe that a "Holy" being upstairs will never leave us, the reason why he send his only begotten son to die for us in that "CROSS", shed his precious blood in order to wash away our sins, thus he remains the only "Way", "Truth" and "Life" and "only" to his son Lord Jesus Christ to the father.
Religion and spiritual issues may have been so remote to be discussed in the doctor's office, but statistics will show that most patients have a strong belief in GOD(King & Bushwick,1994), 63% thought doctors should discuss spiritual faith with patients(USA Weekend,1996),half of patients want doctors and physicians to pray with them, and physicians on the other end believe that patients don't want them to pray(Koenig et al,1998), and lastly patient's second choice for spiritual care giver was their clinician or doctor(Highfield,1992) and actual spiritual care giver was a physician 23% of the time(Soderstrom et al,1987). In conclusion of this studies most patients believe in GOD and for most, this is a strong belief, in a nationwide poll by USA Weekend of 1000 adults, 63% thought doctors should discuss spiritual faith with patients but only 10% had this, while 50% of patients want their physicians believe the opposite. Patients will always preferred to receive spiritual care from their family and personal cleric and secondary from their clinician. Studies will show that patients most important spiritual care will always come from the family(92%),from their spiritual leaders(76%), from their nurse(48%) and the their own physicians(23%).
Further studies will show that there is a close and positive correlation and relation between religion and health. There is a decrease in anxiety among patients if there is an increase in well-being, happiness, and the satisfaction in life, with social and family support and less on the loneliness. The rates of alcohol and drug abuse tend to decline in patients that have an increase in self-esteem and have a decreasing rate in depression. If there are hope and optimism seen in patients coupled with a greater marital stability among married couples then there is a diminishing rate in cases of psychosis. We see less delinquency if there are better coping up mechanisms in stages of bereavement and have increase recovery from depression and decrease rates in suicidal attempts. In some religious groups studies will show that are cases there is a decreasing rates and cases of coronary artery disease. Life-style diseases that can be attributed to decrease heart disease, a decrease in the blood pressure and also lowering number of stroke deaths can be attributed to positive health behaviors and healthy life style among Mormons, Seventh Day Adventist and Jews( Enstrom, Philips, Fraser, Goldbourt, et all).The reasons may be that some religious groups advocate a good diet an health practices among the congregations. If we further look at the cases and study presented Mormons have about half the rate of cardiovascular disease and vascular disease.(Enstrom,et al,1989), in California Seventh-day Adventists over the age of 65 years old had a mortality rates less than one half that of the general population of California(65 years and over) and less than 1/3 for those 35 to 64 years of age.
The studies will that simply shows how prayer and religion will always have a change in the totality of human health are just chronicled in this studies from the effect of religion on blood pressure to issues like intrinsic religion helps people with newly diagnosed cancer to adapt are just some few topics that were tackled.
In this life of ours lets us all embrace that missing link in the chain of patient care and healing, the spiritual aspect of our beliefs for the sole being in heaven, and the existence of his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the caring and healing is not just patient-centered, but Christ-centered caring and healing.