ABSTRACT
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The clinician-patient relationship is essential to the practice of person-centered care. This healing relationship can present challenges to clinicians when working with patients who suffer. Clinicians today are looking for ways to deal with the stress of care-giving and to find greater meaning in their professional lives. RECENT FINDINGS: Professional guidelines recognize that medicine, nursing and other healthcare professions are vocations, not jobs. Reports indicate that physicians and other clinicians feel the current healthcare environment is too business-like yet, patient relationships continue to be the primary source of satisfaction for many clinicians. The relationships can be rewarding but also stressful. Spirituality is proposed as a way for clinicians to reconnect with their professional roots to serve those who suffer. Resources are suggested that might enable clinicians to find greater meaning in their profession. SUMMARY: Professional development should address spiritual development especially as it relates to the healthcare professional's sense of calling to their profession, the basis of relationship-centered care, and the provision of compassionate care.
Subject(s)
Health Personnel/psychology , Spirituality , Humans , Professional-Patient Relations , Spiritual Therapies , Stress, Psychological/psychologyABSTRACT
The focus of my work as a teacher and Episcopal priest has been pastoral. In my work of chaplaincy, spiritual director, and trainer of spiritual directors, I have been powerfully aware of the importance of presence. Furthermore, I have concentrated on the significance of healing-physical, emotional, and spiritual-as distinguished from curing. This article is a reflection, based on my decades of experience, as contrasted with an academic exploration of the history, various traditions, or the methodology of healing.
