Introduction
Healthcare providers encounter patients from different religious backgrounds. Spiritual beliefs and religion play a significant role in the life of a patient but healthcare providers are uncertain about how, when, or where to address religious issues. In the past, providers received training on how to treat a patient. Training on how to relate the patient’s health problem with faith, or cultural belief was not part of the syllabus. Serving patient does not only involve administering medication but also having time for them, helping them in different tasks, and understanding their beliefs and backgrounds. Faith philosophies play a very big role in influencing the outcomes of a health care practice for both the patient and the provider. To understand the impact of faith on the health outcome, this paper provides a comparative analysis of Christian and Buddhism philosophies in the health care context.
Comparative analysis of Christian and Buddhism faith philosophies
Well-being and health of a person is not represented by the absence of suffering and pain but is also have a positive meaning depending on the person’s faith. Positive meaning of life has a lot of implication on health care providers because they serve people with varying fiat philosophies. Both the Christian and Buddhist philosophies of faith in the Western world have equal weights when it comes to the well-being of the society.
Attitudes towards Medication
Christians compose of many denominations including Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah Witness, and Latter-day Saint. The value of health placed by each Christian denomination varies, which influences the outcome of a health care process. For example, Catholics and Protestants belief the success of biomedical treatments and other forms of medication occur in cooperation with God’s grace. Health care providers attending to Christians of Roman Catholic and Protestant origin must allow time for the priest to visit, give Holy Communion, and pray for the patient. Other Christian denominations such as the Jehovah Witness view disease as an inheritance from ancient people like Adam. Because illness is a form of suffering that every human being passes through, the denomination allow followers to seek healthcare help and use different forms of biomedical treatments (Davis & Owens, 2013). Moreover, a big percentage of healthcare providers is from the Christian origin and find it easier giving medical attention to Christian patients.
The Buddhism perspective on health compares to the Christian perspective on the issue of biomedical treatments. Buddhism happens to be among the four largest religions in the world with high number of followers. Buddhism followers must maintain ethical and spiritual well-being and have compassion towards all forms of life. Despite the fact that Buddhist faith does not belief a spiritually-focused person can fall sick, they allow pain medications to their followers provided it eases the pain. Christians attending to Buddhist patients experience some challenges explaining the effect of the prescribed medication to the individual. The 5th precept requires any Buddhist to know the effect of any drug that alters the emotional state. The understanding of the effect of the drug helps restrain the individual from performing any harmful act that may lead to intoxication. However, most Buddhists deny the biomedical treatment process and prefer other forms of medication (Harvey, 2006).
The diet
Healthcare providers give a patient a set of diet rules to help in recovery from a certain illness. Faith diversity of different patients influences the health outcome of a person based on the religious beliefs on diet. Most Christians have no dietary restrictions making it possible to have a positive outcome in biomedicine practices. Diets rules vary with the denomination but it has less influence on the health outcome. Christians understand the importance of fasting. For example, vegetarians may find it hard to follow diets requiring them to eat meat, but they always substitute with another product. Christians allow members to take alcohol but not in excess. Buddhists belief on diet is a bit different from the Christian belief. A number of Buddhists are vegetarian. Buddhists are required to eat moderately and abstain from drugs capable of altering the normal state of mind, such as alcohol. The diet philosophy help by Buddhists sometimes restrict those achieving expected outcomes from biomedicine practices. Health providers from the Buddhist origin must balance between ensuring the patient eats the recommended diet and following the faith philosophy of the religion.
Prayer and meditation
Everybody celebrates diversity and it is important to focus on what people have in common and accept the fact that religious beliefs have no big differences. The Buddhism religion believes in suffering just like Christianity. The presence of grief and tragedies such as sickness, old age, death, and other forms of suffering reveals that human beings were made to undergo suffering. Similarly, Christians are taught to accept suffering as part of live. Jesus told his disciples in Luke 9:22-23 that anyone who was ready to follow Christ teachings must deny himself worldly things and take up his cross. The Christian and Buddha teaching on suffering play a significant role in easing people’s sufferings. Christians and Buddhists undertake prayer and meditation as a way of overcoming suffering. The relationship between philosophies of these two religions helps promote health and wellbeing of individuals. However, some people are too much into religion that they forget to follow their prescribed medication leading to no real improvement on health.
Healing
Christians and Buddhists share common beliefs when it comes to healing. Buddhists belief healing comes from Buddha. Healing takes the form of a physical healing or the healing of the mind (psychological healing). Many people refer to healing as a cure from a physical problem but religious philosophies refer to healing as freedom from physical and psychological problems. The Buddhism perspective considers the concept of mind as the determinant of the healing process. Buddhists believe any form of suffering is temporary and its causes can be easily removed from the mind. The mid creates health and sickness. A person who possesses a healthy mind has a healthy body. Additionally, suffering comes from the human desire and is attached to the environment. Many Buddhists following the religion norms belief in suffering; hence, many patients rarely report any form of pain or suffering. However, nurses from the Christian origin are full of sympathy and are caring, thus end up relieving them the pain upon realizing their sufferings (Shelly and Miller, 2006).
Christians follow the Biblical teachings about healing. Earlier Christians believed in the power of healing and always performed rituals and other sacrifices to seek favor from their gods. Under the Christian Biblical teachings, the unity of the body and the soul yields healing. Christians belief in God as the source of health, but refer to biomedical practices to help on the healing process. In the New Testament, Jesus healed many people who had faith through miracles. Jesus performed both physical and psychological healings to his followers (Shelly and Miller, 2006). Moreover, Jesus commanded his disciples to cure the sick (Vigen, 2009). Christians seek medical help to acquire both physical and psychological healing, but with the favor of God.
Role of patients when cared for by providers from different religion and faith perspectives
Patients should understand not all health care providers come from the same religious background. A provider with Christian faith may take care of the Buddhist patient while the Buddhist physician may treat a Christian patient. Patients have the duty of explaining their religious beliefs to the health care provider irrespective of the religion. Health care providers must adhere to the medicine code of ethics and in many instances they end up not following religious beliefs when it comes to medical issues. For example, a health provider of the Buddhist faith may not realize a Christian patient in pain and suffering because their religion overlooks suffering. Hence, the Christian patient should inform the nurse of any problem to avoid unnecessary complications.
Conclusion
Religious beliefs are more complex when applied in the healthcare context. Health providers have a duty of ensuring the patient receives and follows all medical instructions given but the patient’s faith dictate otherwise. On the other hand, diversified faiths have a lot of impact on the health outcome considering both the health care provider and the patient may come from different religious backgrounds. According to Davis & Owens (2013), religious activities define an individual’s identity and influence decisions about medical treatment and disease coping strategies. The integration of clinical and spiritual practice is a major dilemma for healthcare providers given that they must adhere to the medicine code of ethics. Additionally, religion convictions affect medical decision-making processes with more than 70 percent of patient requiring clinicians to address their faith.
References
Davis, L. I. & Owens, C. (2013, March 20). The impact of religion on health practices: Health
Disparities and Cultural Competence. American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).
Harvey, C. (2006). A Buddhist perspective on health and spatiality. Scottish Journal of
Healthcare Chaplaincy, 9(1), 33-35.
Shelly, J. A., & Miller, A. B. (2006). Called to care: A Christian worldview for nursing.
Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic/InterVarsity Press.
Vigen, M. A. (2009,July 15). “Heal the Sick”: Why Public Health Care is a Christian Duty.
OnFaith. Retrieved February 19, 2016 from http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2009/07/15/heal-the-sick-why-public-health-care-is-a-christian-duty/5040
