Talking About Spirituality in Health Care Practice

Health care professionals who endeavour to work holistically face a number of questions about spirituality. What is meant by `spirituality' as opposed to `religion'? What is its specific relevance to health care practice? This accessible book provides answers to these questions and offers a model for personal and professional development. Gillian White sets out a framework within which health care professionals can discuss spirituality and equip themselves to respond appropriately to the spiritual concerns of their patient in daily practice. She draws on her experience of sharing and discussing spirituality and spiritual care with other health care professionals and proposes that multi-professional health care teams should talk about spirituality in challenging but safe environments to develop shared understanding of it, and to increase their confidence about integrating spiritual care into their daily practise. This text is a useful contribution to the multi-disciplinary, whole-person approach in health care and will be of interest to all health care professionals, nursing staff and students in these fields.