Spirituality is an integral part of the needs of patients that need to be considered in the treatment process. However, this same spirituality ends up subjecting patients and their family members when it comes to making vital clinical decisions. One of the major dilemmas that spirituality subjects to its patients among Christians have been on deciding on whether to depend on clinical intervention or their faith to God. The paper is a discussion of such a dilemma case study and the focus will be on the role of the parents towards making the best health decisions for their kids.
On whether the physician should still allow Mike to make decisions for the patient
On whether to decide if indeed the physician should stop the parent from providing medical decisions for the patient calls for an understanding of the role played by the physician and also the parent as two most important people for the well-being of the patient. Mike has been presented in the case as not just the custodian to the patient but the parents. Therefore, the parent is the legal custodian of the patient. On the other hand, the physicians act as an advocate for the patient whose main role is to advocate for any changes in the provisions of healthcare services to the patient (McCoy et al., 2017). In this case, the roles of the parent have overpowered those of the physician and therefore the physician cannot stop the parent from making decisions for the patient. The kid is underage and the fact that their parents are not incapacitated from making decisions means that they are the legal people that are authorized to make these decisions for their kids. The case, however, presents parents who are making decisions that are not rational and therefore risking the lives of the patient. The physician can, however, play the role of an advocate for the patient by communicating to the parents on how the different decisions will impact their well-being (McCoy et al., 2017).
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Christian View of Health and Medication
The thought of health and sickness to a Christian is that of a curse, punishment, a message or in other cases, some trials that God puts His people through. It is from this thought of sickness that defines the approaches of treatment that a Christian will seek. Because of the thought of sickness being attributed to God’s reactions to His people, some Christians would opt to rely on faith as the only source of healing. However, the contemporary Christian should accept the basic causes of diseases and progress towards seeking the contemporary treatment options as means of showing their faith on the scientists who were given the same mind of getting treated from God.
There is a need for Christians to change their thoughts on medical intervention. In as much as it is a faith that defines who a Christian is, the faith needs to be backed by action because it is what the Bible advocates for (New King James Version Bible, 2009, James 2:26). Medical intervention should be viewed as a sign of acting that proves their faith. It is God that gives people the brains and creativity to make medical discoveries which are aimed towards subduing humanity and the entire creation. In the long run, therefore, medical intervention should be viewed as a step of faith towards God.
Mike as a Christian had a crucial role in ensuring that his son ends up being healthy again. The attainment of this, however, depended on his actions and attitudes towards religion. As a parent he is legally and spiritually viewed as the custodian of the well-being of his son and his presence makes his decisions the final one. In the process of deciding the best medical decisions for his son, he needs to be guided by the urgency of the matter at hand. As a parent, he was supposed to bring in the aspect of time-based on the health state of his son. The condition was time critical and should have settled for an immediate medical intervention once the patient was diagnosed and proceed towards seeking spiritual intervention once the patient was stable. This is because the time between the diagnosis and seeking spiritual intervention was very critical in terms of worsening of the patient’s state. The major challenge is however on making the decision if his other son, Samuel, can donate a kidney for James. In this case, he has been put in a situation determining life and death. By this, therefore, there is a need for him to work closely with the physicians (Epstein et al., 2017) on the effectiveness of the transplant owing to the fact that the donor is still a young kid.
Significance of a Spiritual Needs Assessment in the case
A spiritual needs assessment is a crucial element in the provision of healthcare to the patients. This assessment aims at looking at the all possible spiritual needs of the patient and progressing towards developing a care plan that will ensure that these needs have been accounted for (Timmins & Caldeira, 2017). The tool is also vital in ensuring that the required resources and facilities are brought in place for the guaranteeing of these needs. The problem displayed in the case study can be attributed to the lack of a spiritual needs assessment for the patient. The presence of the assessment would have taken into consideration how the parents are staunch Christians and thus provide an intervention plan that would have to accommodate these spiritual beliefs. One of these could have been creating a visiting schedule that would allow the parents and their pastor to come and visit and pray for the boy while still in the facility. This would have ensured that the patients will no lack of clinical intervention while seeking spiritual intervention. Additionally, the interactions between the parents and the physicians would have been tailored in a manner that the spiritual needs of the patients are given the importance they deserve. Facilities such as praying areas and extended visiting time are perfect ways through which facilities can meet the spiritual needs of its patients.
References
Epstein, R. M., Duberstein, P. R., Fenton, J. J., Fiscella, K., Hoerger, M., Tancredi, D. J., ... & Kaesberg, P. (2017). Effect of a patient-centred communication intervention on oncologist-patient communication, quality of life, and health care utilization in advanced cancer: the VOICE randomized clinical trial. JAMA oncology , 3 (1), 92-100.
McCoy, M. S., Carniol, M., Chockley, K., Urwin, J. W., Emanuel, E. J., & Schmidt, H. (2017). Conflicts of interest for patient-advocacy organizations. New England Journal of Medicine , 376 (9), 880-885.
Timmins, F., & Caldeira, S. (2017). Assessing the spiritual needs of patients. Nursing Standard (2014+) , 31 (29), 47.
Version, N. K. J. (2009). Holy Bible: New King James Version. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson .
