The current study analyzes data from 30,995 chaplain visits with patients and families that were part of the New York Chaplaincy Study. The data were collected at 13 healthcare institutions in the Greater New York City area from 1994-1996. Seventeen chaplain interventions were recorded: nine that were religious or spiritual in nature, and eight that were more general or not specifically religio...

OBJECTIVE Distinguishing the unique contributions and roles of chaplains as members of healthcare teams requires the fundamental step of articulating and critically evaluating conceptual models that guide practice. However, there is a paucity of well-described spiritual assessment models. Even fewer of the extant models prescribe interventions and describe desired outcomes corresponding to spir...

■ CONCLUSIONS: Evidence supporting the use of spiritual interventions for medical and psychological outcomes in CR programs is very limited because of a lack of controlled clinical trials. However, the descriptive and observational studies provide some empirical support to further explore spiritual interventions in CR programs, with the goal of enhancing the psychosocial and emotional status of...

OBJECTIVE this article describes the assessment of the spiritual wellbeing of elderly patients with cancer submitted to chemotherapy and possible predictive factors of the spiritual distress diagnosis. METHODOLOGY this is a methodological study for clinical validation of a nursing diagnosis, using interviews to assist in completing the form. RESULTS 45 elderly patients participated in this ...

Some cures carried out by Medium João Teixeira de Faría (John of God) are presented. He claims to channel spiritual entities (Drs. Augusto de Almeida, Oswaldo Cruz, and José Valdivino) that have instantaneous access to the physical, emotional and spiritual history of each patient who is then treated by physical or "spiritual" surgeries, herbs, meditation, prayers and the ingestion of "energized...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether interventions that promote meditation improve quality of life in cancer patients. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE data bank (1966 to 2004) using the terms "spiritual well-being" and the MeSH terms "meditation", "neoplasm", "cancer", and "spiritual therapies". STUDY SELECTION Clinical trials evaluating the effect of meditation on cancer patients. SYNTHESIS Five studies we...

A growing body of evidence demonstrates a significant relationship between spirituality and health. HIV-infected individuals often find new meaning and purpose for their lives while establishing new connections and strengthening old ones. This descriptive, correlational study examined the relationships among spiritual well-being, sleep quality, and health status in 107 HIV-infected men and wome...

Spirituality plays an integral role in how the individual with cancer and his/her family adapt to the experience of cancer. In this module, spirituality, religion, and spiritual coping are defined and contrasted. The historical role of religion and the current demography of religious affiliation in the African American population are reviewed. The importance of spirituality and religion in the ...