Introduction
In improving the efficiency of the world health care program, technology and design should be highly considered. This will improve heath literacy through information access, education and wellness interventions. Studies show that health care environment improves the outcomes of the clinical services (Mairead, 2011). A hospital setting determines the outcome of illness. Healing hospital paradigm offers services beyond the traditional cure model (Mairead, 2011).
Description of a Healing Hospital
A healing hospital refers to a hospital whereby the moral values and working conditions in health care are taken into consideration by increasing the availability of the staff and services required (Burkhadt, 2010). Healing is the wellness of the whole body. Hospital exists to heal the community and all the members in a society should receive those services upon illness (Burkhadt, 2010). Patients, friends, families and caregivers have joint ownership in the process, and experience of the journey toward the community well-being. A healing hospital should act in a particular way so as to have certain goals in mind (Burkhadt, 2010). All these parties have a major objective of physical, emotional and spiritual wellness and the intention is to provide a healing environment, and experience to every individual (Burkhadt, 2010).
Components of a Healing Hospital
A healing hospital provides a variety of the environmental setting to the person receiving heath care (Burkhadt, 2010). The first component is the integration of physical and emotional or spiritual well-being. A healing hospital provides educational, healing, and encouraging human experiences. Not only that the patient is subjected to health care, but also his family members are considered in this paradigm unlike the traditional health care. According to Burkhadt, a hospital with healing qualities is connected to giving care to various individuals, and human interaction (2010). It should place people and value of interpersonal relationship in the middle of the healing journey to benefit both the caregivers and the patients (Burkhadt, 2010).
The physical environment provides the second component of the healing hospital. A hospital environment should be free of noise, and conversations along the corridors. The reduction of noise enables quick recovery to the patients both physically and emotionally (Burkhadt, 2010). It should encourage, recognizes and promote self-healing skills of each individual. It should also enable people to concentrate on mental, spiritual, physical, emotional and tribal wellbeing.
Integration of technology and design is the third component of the healing hospital. Technology is vital in providing work design, provision of efficient health care facilities, security, cost reduction, and satisfaction (O’Brien, 2010). A secure environment should offered high quality technical facility for healing. It should be a place whereby not only technical competency is important, but also competency in compassion, acceptance, relationship, and spirituality (O’Brien, 2010).
Healing Hospital Relationship to Spirituality
The concept of spirituality unlike religion affects everyone in the community. Religion is divided and it is adopted by some few individuals. Technological advancement tends to change the focus on medicine from a caring service model to technological cure model (O’Brien, 2010). Technology has led to the introduction of curative medicines and has the ability to make life longer. Physicians have incorporated spirituality into medicine and ensured a relationship between spirituality, and medical care (O’Brien, 2010). A spiritual activity entails serving the whole person socially, emotionally and physically.
Spirituality entails fixing, helping and serving others. In serving patients, one can spend time with them, talking about what is important to them, holding their hands, and sharing experiences with them (O’Brien, 2010). Physicians have the responsibility to give compassionate care to patients during painful situations rather than dictating instructions to them. An individual is not destroyed by suffering but by suffering without meaning. Medical ethicists argue that religion and spirituality understanding of life meaning to many individuals (Chapman, 2011). Patient’s pain relating to mental and physical suffering makes the patient to have many questions in his life. Some illnesses may not necessarily need cure but the acceptance of the illness by the patient can bring about healing. This is because of the spiritual belief (Chapman, 2011). People always need to be remembered especially by their family members and the person around them. It has been noticed that those patients who are dying are ignored and left alone. It is argued that they are dealing with issues of transcendence (Chapman, 2011). Therefore, there is a need of a person to be around them during the process.
Challenges/Barriers of a Healing Hospital
Across the world, fewer hospitals deal with more patients, diseases, costs, and bigger headaches. The concept of healing hospital paradigm is very dignified. In traditional hospital setting, finance becomes the major challenge to the healing hospital. It is possible to save cost while saving lives (O’Brien, 2010). This is possible only if technology, training, recruitment, and facilities are improved. The hospital should consider its investment in technology and facilities to boost the healing nature of health care. Love and compassion are also important in health care to transform the skills, culture, and mindsets of the health care providers (Chapman, 2011). In most countries, most hospitals are faced with inadequate financing in equipment and management (Chapman, 2011). There are also high costs associated with inventory control, medical administration, and provision of bed side services. According to Chapman, the expenditure of constantly purchasing new equipment is stressful to most of the organizations (2011). The equipment necessary for the maintenance of patients health care are highly expensive. The cost on maintenance and management is also high and this may cause the hospitals do divert from the mission of health care (Chapman, 2011). Technology is therefore essential in ensuring that productivity increases and cost reduces, thus accumulating revenue.
In addition, healing hospitals face legal problems. There are increasing costs of insurance premiums and high litigation rates in the health care industry. There might usually be high litigation costs in the industry, but it is unacceptable in health care industry. The organization of staff also forms another challenge (Burkhadt, 2010). There has been a traditional hierarchy in staff, which is being out dated by the modern staff that demands that every person should equally be involved in offering services to patients. Adaptation to this model becomes a major challenge in the healing hospitals.
Within this environment, philosophy is also a major challenge. The cure models used traditionally only cured physically and used scientific skills to eliminate the infection. The healing paradigm goes beyond physical cure to emotional and spiritual well-being (Burkhadt, 2010). Therefore, subjective procedures in health care can be used unlike the physical ones. The diversity in values and beliefs of different people remains a challenge because standards need to be set to cater for all the patients. According to 2 John 1:3, the bible states that “Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in the body as you are strong in spirit” (The Holy Bible, 2010) This depicts the relationship between healing and spirituality.
Conclusion
The paradigm of healing hospital entails procedures and practices to provide the physical, mental, and spiritual health care to the patients (Burkhadt, 2010). There are three major components in the concept. They include; the healing physical environment, the culture to give care to the patients, and the combination of technology and design.
References
Burkhadt, M.A. (2010). Ethics and issues in contemporary nursing (3rd ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Chapman, E. (2011). Radical loving care: Building the healing hospital in America. Nashville, TN: Eric Chapman Foundation.
Mairead Hickey, P. B. (2011). Change Leadership in NursingNew York: Springer Publishing Company.
O’Brien, M.E. (2010). Spirituality in nursing: Standing on holy ground (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
2010. The Holy Bible (King James Version). New York: National Publishing Company.
