Healing Hospital
Healing hospital paradigm is centered on the removal of stress and other health risks for the patients and their families in the hospital environment. Healing hospital paradigm is important because treating a patient’s illness is not the only intrinsic component when they are admitted to the hospital. A good example for this is stress. Stress can be brought about due to many things when a patient is in the hospital, for example painful treatments, financial problems due to being admitted, loss of social life etc.
Reducing these sort of stressors may ensure that the patient’s wellbeing is being maintained and the comprehensive care Minimization of these stressors ensures that the patient’s well-being is maintained while the comprehensive care part of the treatment makes certain that the patient’s recovery process is done without breaking confidentiality. The healing hospital paradigm can also be looked as healing the whole patient rather than just curing the ailment (Young & Koopsen, 2006).
According to Dr. Milstein, paradigm doesn’t only focus on healing the physical body but “it aims to enhance the overall well being by addressing the patient’s and their families’ cognitive, emotional and spiritual concerns” (Milstein, 2005). This paper will describe healing hospital paradigm, its impact on the process of care giving and its components expanding on it relationship with spirituality.
Components of Healing Hospital
Based on the paradigm of healing hospital, Caring for a patient is not limited to only medical interventions and medication but it also includes how the healthcare provider engages the patients and their families to the process of treatment. This theory is based on the notion that both spiritual and emotional wellbeing applies to physical wellbeing. The healing hospital comprise of three major components. The first component is the culture of radical loving care. This may include the kind of care the patient receives and the type of conditions he/she is exposed to in the hospital.
This component focuses on making the patient comfortable and preparing the patient psychologically for the treatment they would receive. Caregivers most have compassion to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of a patient and not only their physical needs. They most be able to demonstrate loving care and show the patients that they are willing to go the extra mile for them. Being compassionate and showing love can help reduce the stress for the patients and their families, healthcare provides bring hope. The next component is the healing physical environment.
The physical environment in which a patient is being treated is also very crucial in the treatment process (Samueli, 2010). Hospitals should be free of stressful disturbances for the patient and their families. This kind of disturbances may include dull settings, noise and disorganization. A good healing physical environment must be well organized and constructed. Evidence has shown that rest is an important part of a patient’s healing process, but many hospitals are noisy with pagers beeping here and there and lots of people talking along the hallways.
A good healing physical environment should address these kinds of challenges. Other things such as lighting and temperature must be well regulated to keep the patient as comfortable as possible. The final component of healing hospital is the integration of technology with work design. Technology is intertwined into the healthcare field to help the healthcare team help their patients recover in a good environment. Technology allows the staff members to work efficiently and to work in a manner that maximizes the comfort of the patients.
In a good healing environment, patients get more sleep which helps with their healing. Staff members are giving technological equipments such as cordless phones, vibrating pagers and dynamaps for blood pressure, and they are educated to use them efficiently to promote healing in a noise-free environment. These technological advancements help to create stress-free environment for the patients and helps reduce medical errors. The healing hospitals also use technology to provide satisfaction, security, decreased cost and privacy for the patients and their families.
These are crucial in the psychological needs of the patient. Challenges of Creating a Healing Environment There are various challenges involved in implementing a good healing hospital environment. First and foremost, the advancement of technology (e. g. more tubes and more wires) has complicated healthcare and is dominating in that healthcare providers are forgetting the original essentials of healing such as the compassion and the loving care. If the balance between technology and compassion can bee implemented, the results of patient satisfaction will increase.
Another challenge with technology advancement also focuses on the profits rather the compassionate care of the patient. The next challenge is that there are a lot of similarities between prisons and hospitals. Patients’ clothing’s are replaced by gowns, their names with barcodes and identification numbers, there is no longer any intimacy and they share their living space with strangers. Even restriction in visiting hours can make an individual feel like a prisoner. This is all due to that fact that healthcare providers are suppose to their tasks with robotic precision.
According to Chapman, the hospital system is a “bureaucracy” and it is “an organization that acts as machines and are difficult to work with” (Chapman, 2010). Another challenge is that some healthcare providers or even family members and patients could be cynics. Cynicism is damaging to the care of patients. Healthcare providers should not be skeptic to the fact that love is a vital part of a patient’s recovery. Finally, leadership is an important aspect of healing hospital paradigm. The leaders in a healthcare setting have the responsibility to make sure love and compassion is at the top of the list in their plan to care for a patient.
Biblical Passage that Supports the Concept of Healing Hospital In psalm 107 verses 17-22, the message version, David wrote “then you called out to God in you desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time”. Here he describes how God heals the sick when they call on him. The sick in this passage have faith and are not cynics or skeptics which is and important part of healing. David explained the reality, living a bad life could get you sick and having faith that you would get better can heal you. It’s all about the positivity. David went on saying “So thank God for his marvelous love, for his miracle mercy to the children he loves”.
This goes on to show that God’s love brings healing. This passage supports the paradigm of healing hospital because it has to do with healing the overall person and God does that too. The healing hospital is gaining more popularity now because there are a lot of benefits to it. This care system helps to enhance the overall wellbeing of the patient and their relatives and not only their physical body. This paradigm focuses on compassionate care that helps patient with stress and coping mechanisms through spirituality. This will help the community at large and bring it solace and hope.
References:
- Chapman, E. (2010). Radical loving care: building the healing hospital in America.
- Nashville, TN: Vaughn Printing. Milstein, J. (2005).
- A paradigm of integrative care: healing with curing throughout life, “being with” and “doing to”. Journal of Perinatology, 25, 563-568. doi: 10. 1038/sj. jp. 7211358
- Samueli Institute (2010). Optimal Healing Environments. February 12, 2013. Retrieved from http://www. siib. org/news/280-SIIB/version/default/part/AttachmentData/data/OHE_final. pdf
- Young, C. , & Koopsen, C. (2006). Spirituality, health, and healing (1 ed. ). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
