In the USA Weekend Faith and Health Poll, 65% felt that it was good for doctors to speak with them about their spiritual beliefs, yet only 10% said a doctor had had such a conversation with them (23).
In patients with deeper spirituality and religiousness, enhanced physical health and a better ability to perform daily tasks, was reported. www.spiritualityhealth.com
"It is God that does the healing. But mans hands whom He uses!" - Dr. Danielle Wright
Does Prayer, Healing and Doctors work to promote healing?
Technology has led to phenomenal advances in medicine and has given us the ability to prolong life. However, in the past few decades physicians have attempted to balance their care by reclaiming medicine's more spiritual roots, recognizing that until modern times spirituality was often linked with health care. Spiritual or compassionate care involves serving the whole person—the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Such service is inherently a spiritual activity.
A study of pulmonary outpatients at the University of Pennsylvania found that 66% agreed that a physician's inquiry about spiritual beliefs would strengthen their trust in their physician; 94% of patients for whom spirituality was important wanted their physicians to address their spiritual beliefs and be sensitive to their values framework. Even 50% of those for whom spirituality was not important felt that doctors should at least inquire about spiritual beliefs in cases of serious illness (24).