The world’s population is comprised of various religions. Each of these religions have their own view of what illness/ sickness is and what is to be done during the treatment of these diseases. The following paper discusses the religious beliefs of the Muslim and Buddhist pertaining to illness and how to provide care to people in these cultures.
Muslims consider illness to be a test from God. They understand that illness and disease are a part of life. They perceive illness as a way through which their sins can be removed, they are rewarded for their spiritual belief, and they can improve their own health. When treating them, one should ensure that the same gender physician or doctor is the one attending to them. They greatly value their privacy and modesty and hence physical contact should be preceded by a permission request to do so. This goes for both the male and female patients. However, great care must be placed to ensure female patients are not disrespected.
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For female patients, male doctors or nurses must not take it as offence when the female patients do not make eye contact. Their religious beliefs do not allow this and hence they must maintain their modesty by ensuring no eye contact is made with males. In this way, their Religious beliefs also prevent them from making physical contact with male’s outside their family. In this way, male doctors and nurses have to ask for permission before any physical contact is made (Rassool, 2014).
Muslims religious beliefs also do not allow for the consumption of pork and its by-products, gelatine, alcohol and other animal fats. In this way, when prescribing medication, these medicines should not have any of the products mentioned above as they are considered haram or halal (prohibited or permissible). However in emergency cases, the rule does not apply if the alternate drugs were not available. This must first be explained to the patient first (Rassool, 2014).
For Buddhists, they believe that suffering and illness are inevitable and cannot be avoided. Buddhists view sickness or illness as a way to better cultivate their spirituality and mental states through the practice of forbearance and patience. When they are posed with an illness, they will take up praying and meditation beforehand. Since illness is believed to be a test, they will try to push the negative energy out of their bodies and use traditional remedies to cure most of their ailments. However, in bad situations Buddhists are open to seeking medical attention (Taylor, 2012).
Buddhists believe that illness is only a test and thus do not take it heavily when they are told no medical solution can be offered for their illness, in this way, it is easy for doctors to break bad news and offer medical advice on what is to be done. They believe the body and mind are related and dependent of each other, hence any physical pain is an opportunity to strengthen their mental and spiritual states. In the Buddhist culture, Doctors and nurses are held in high esteem as they help others ease their suffering, thus, they are open to treatment and any pain relief methods employed by the doctors as long as it is explained to them and they can make the choice of what they require to be done. When in hospital, they may wish to have an Image of Buddha at their bedside. Aside from this, other normal procedures can be employed during the treatment of a Buddhist (Taylor, 2012).
References
Rassool, G. H. (2014). Cultural Competence in Caring for Muslim Patients . Palgrave Macmillan. Print.
Taylor, E. J. (2012). Religion: A Clinical Guide for Nurses . Springer Publishing Company. Print.
