In the healthcare sector, patients vary from each other owing to the fact that they have different spiritual and religious backgrounds. Religion and spirituality are crucial in nursing because they influence most of the patients understanding of health, patient’s decision about certain treatment, the relationship between healthcare practitioners and patients’ perspective on health issues. For a nurse to be a holistic and a competent professional, he or she should be acquainted with both the religious and spiritual beliefs of their patients ( Sessanna, Finnell & Jezewski, 2007). There so many different religions to choose from and no patient should be made to feel like they are being forced to a particular religion. These two terms are different depending on different individuals.
According to Reinert and Koenig (2013), religion refers to the standardization of common opinions, customs, and traditions. These standardized beliefs are mostly incorporated in the community and are used as a foundation to make decisions. Most religious beliefs include opinions related to healthcare, diseases, diet, and death. Spirituality, on the other hand, refers to believing on a Supreme Being with powers that control the universe, a connection between all living beings and the establishment of personal principles. Spirituality originates from personal beliefs while religion originates from customary beliefs.
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Even though being spiritual and being religious are closely related, it possible to have a religious person who is not spiritual and one can be spiritual without being religious. Religion is more structured and public while spirituality is more personal and private. Spirituality is generally a personal connection outside a person’s self-sense. It is developed from within based on personal beliefs and experiences. On the other hand, religion has a formal structure and is based on a certain level of expectation. Spirituality inspires religious practices. Spirituality influences both social and personal behavior of an individual while religion influences the happenings in the world. Spirituality gives a person’s life a meaning while religion brings a general meaning of life and death.
There are three components of spirituality which include intra-personal, interpersonal and transpersonal components ( Kapuscinski & Masters, 2010). These components are highly influenced by experiences that affect an individual. One of my friends once experienced a very difficult situation that led to depression after she was kicked out of her matrimonial home by her husband without any good reason. Before she was kicked out she had found her husband cheating with different women on different occasions. This experience was so hard on her that it psychologically affected her and her spiritual components. The experience lowered her self-esteem, disconnected her from herself and made her irresponsible to an extent that she stopped going to work and taking care of herself.
She also became disconnected from her family and friends and she kept everything to herself. She stopped being connected to her faith and lost hope in the future. However, she had to be there for her kids and had to find strength and peace. This triggered her to start realizing herself and her strengths. She started by taking care of her spirituality. Her self-esteem improved and she started connecting to herself by taking care of her spiritual health. This made her realize her strengths, efficacy, and weaknesses. She started being responsible for everything she did and moved on with her life. She also found love and remarried. She started interacting with other people and was will to share her experience to inspire others. She found peace within herself and lived in harmony with family. She connected to her faith and had hope for the future. After all, she was grateful that the future brought better things. Spiritual health gives one a purpose and strength to live and cope with all situations.
References
Kapuscinski, A. N., & Masters, K. S. (2010). The current status of measures of spirituality: A critical review of scale development. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality , 2 (4), 191.
Reinert, K. G., & Koenig, H. G. (2013). Re ‐ examining definitions of spirituality in nursing research. Journal of advanced nursing , 69 (12), 2622-2634.
Sessanna, L., Finnell, D., & Jezewski, M. A. (2007). Spirituality in nursing and health-related literature: a concept analysis. Journal of Holistic Nursing , 25 (4), 252-262.
