Healing Hospital

Question: Describe the components of a healing hospital and their relationship to spirituality. What are the challenges of creating a healing environment in light of the barriers and complexities of the hospital environment? Answer: Healing hospital seeks to serve as a complementary force to modern medical practices which seeks to restore the equilibrium in the current healthcare system which is unbalanced (Chapman, 2003). This is possible since it aims to aim for not only mental and physical well-being but aims for a holistic well-being that includes spiritual and social well-being as well. According to Eberst (2008), the various components of healing hospital are as follows. Physical environment that is healing Work design and technology integration Culture driven by radical love and care A healing physical environment tends to focus not only on the patients but also on the family members and other supporters. This would typically include besides others addressing issues such as noise level and providing aesthetics which ensures well-being in the wider sense and thereby including the emotional and spiritual components. The work design and technology need to be integrated in a manner so that it assists in the overall healing by minimising any inconvenience caused to the patients and supporters. The design component is particularly visible in case of critical assets such as elevators and also critical departments where there may be most frequent correspondence. While technology on one hand ensuring convenience, the underlying culture on the other is driven by radical love and care which tends to aid in spiritual healing. This radical love and care is not aimed at providing comfort on an emotional level and not only focus on eradication of disease. Such a hospital is clo sely related to spirituality as it ensures harmonious relationship between the mind and the body by widening the dimension of care to include spiritual wellbeing by providing requisite counselling and knowledge to patients in such matters (Eberst, 2008). Even though healing hospitals can potentially lead to better patient outcomes along with higher employee satisfaction, but still there are certain challenges in the creation of such a healing environment. One of the challenges is the technological advancement which is interfering with the established circle of life. With these innovations, it is claimed that the process of aging can be controlled and hence apparent suffering can be removed. This belief creates an issue as the patient and staff both do not cater to the spiritual needs and focuses on the physical needs (Aldridge, 2000). Another major impediment is the profit making tendency on the part of the hospital and staff due to which emphasis is put on providing those services that can be monetised and providing infrastructure that can be used for making money. The focus therefore is given on various magic drugs and complex procedures rather than concepts like spiritual healing (Chapman, 2003). Yet another potential issue which is challenging is the bureaucracy existing in the hospital whereby the staff is preoccupied with a plethora of tasks and thus not able to provide the love and care that leads to the creation of a healing environment. Besides, it is also imperative that the staff must be adequately trained not only in medicine but also with regards to emotional and spiritual healing as this is a key differentiating factor of such establishments (McCall, 2003). Lastly, the issue of poor leadership and cynicism can also be a challenge in the creation of a healing environment. This can especially be the case when the physician and other staff tend to view as patients not as holistic beings but as a group of organs and tend to focus exclusively on the malfunctioning organ. It is imperative that while physical treatment is limited to the dysfunctional organ but emotional, mental and spiritual needs are always present (Chapman, 2003). It is imperative that the above challen ges be overcome so as to put in practice the true healing environment desired from a healing hospital. References Aldridge, D. (2000). Healing and Medicine: Return to the silence. Jessica Kingsley Publishers: London Chapman, E. (2003). Radical Loving Care: Building the Healing Hospital in America. Baptist Healing Hospital Trust: Nashville, Tennessee Eberst, L. (2008), Healing Hospital, Retrieved from Best Companies Website on July 25, 2016 https://www.bestcompaniesaz.com/pdf/HealingHospital.pdf McCall, B.J. (2004). Bereavement and Counseling: Pastoral Care for Complicated Grieving. Routledge: London