Read all readings for this module and research other articles or websites associated with
the healing hospital paradigm. As you read, consider how this paradigm might influence
your philosophy of caregiving. Any hospital with a healing component to its mission can be
used as a resource.
Write an essay of 1,000-1,250 words in which you address the following:
- Describe the components of healing hospitals and their relationship to spirituality.
- What are the challenges of creating a healing environment in light of the barriers and
complexities of the hospital environment? - Include at least one biblical passage or parable that you believe supports the concept of a
healing hospital and provide rationale for your selection.
Healing Hospital: A Daring Paradigm
A lot of themes and issues within the healthcare sector have cropped up where most of
them involve healing in hospitals. This illustrates a case in healthcare whereby a patient is in safe
hands whenever he or she is in need of medical attention. People should not be stressed on how
they will take care of the sick people because they are in safe hands when in hospital. In many
hospitals, the staff is dedicated to serving the patients in selected wards in certain hospitals. This
lays a higher emphasis on the welfare of the patient and not really, on what they are ailing. The
patient on the other side feels loved and well cared for in the health care facility. A Healing
Hospital to be precise is concerned with giving quality care, love and service to a patient while at
the clinic (Lundy & Janes, 2009).
The Healing Hospital paradigm consists of a number of components of the self. That is,
aspects of mental, spiritual and physical concern to the individual. The family of the patient is
also closely involved while trying to look into the deeper meaning of what really the Healing
HEALING HOSPITAL: A DARING PARADIGM 2
Hospital paradigm is. Their spiritual, emotional and cognitive issues are included here. This is
because of the major role these play in the well-being of the patient as well as the general coping
of the situation. It should be noted that a Healing Hospital could be explained as an everyday
process of assisting and giving the much-needed care to the patient. Skill and a kind heart of the
caregiver characterize it. This implies that the caregiver should be a professional in the first place
and should treat the patient with high regard (Dossey & Keegan, 2013). The entire environment
plays a vital role in seeing to it that the patient is contented and this leads to a quicker recovery.
The patient feels rejuvenated because of the love that the caregivers offer. The caregiver should
try as much as possible to show the patient that they are improving every day even if this is not
the case (Lundy & Janes, 2009). This goes a long way in giving hope to the patient that their
health will be restored in no time.
Since most people believe that love and care towards the patient is found only in a
healing center, there is a lot of hope when the patient is taken to such a place. This results to a
feeling of peace since they are sure that their patient will receive the best services there. The
human spirit has many needs and good health is one of them. With all the advances in
technology and service delivery, everyone needs to balance between these technologies and their
faith in the Most High God. The staff at the health care center should take it upon themselves to
help the patients in creating this balance by practicing the same themselves. It is referred to as
the Golden Thread and plays a vital part in the wellbeing of the patient. Healing Hospital as a
concept entails many components all together. There needs to be the loving and caring culture to
help the stakeholders reach their goal (Lundy & Janes, 2009).
HEALING HOSPITAL: A DARING PARADIGM 3
The major components of the healing hospital includes the physical environment created
by the caregivers and staff of the hospital, proper integration of technology applied, and the
Radical Loving Care culture. This culture has been discussed above shows love and care
regardless of the state of the patient at any time. This explains the reason that assisting patients
does not only mean considering them, but also dictates that the staff should interact well with
the family members of the patient as well as those family members that go over to the hospital to
see how their patient is doing. By so doing, the patient and the rest of their family members will
cope better with the stress and the outcomes of the illness. For instance, it can be shocking if the
patient is the sole bread winner in the home. The children are likely to get stressed. The creation
of a working integration between the technology and work design goes a long way into helping
the staff members to perform their duties effectively, upholding confidentiality and privacy of all
sensitive information and data concerning their patients (Lundy & Janes, 2009).
Technologies implemented in most of today’s Healing Hospitals are really playing a vital
role in the entire healing process. Applying the culture of Radical Loving Care, involves good
leadership and employee welfare. This is what adds more to the recipe of love, care and
compassion of the caregivers and staff members towards the sick person (Dossey & Keegan,
2013). It continually reminds the staff of the Healing Hospital that they have a very important
role to play in the hospital. This is the secret behind the hastened healing of patients that are
taken to the Healing Hospitals compared to those receiving health care from other facilities. This
is because the patient’s needs are all met including emotional, physical and spiritual (Lundy &
Janes, 2009). It should be noted that there is a close relationship between healing and the
spirituality of the people. These two components should be given first priorities when attending
to patients in hospitals.
HEALING HOSPITAL: A DARING PARADIGM 4
One of the major challenges that patients have lately experienced is that most of the
healthcare institutions are money oriented, and actually have stopped caring for the welfare of
their patients. Quality of patient service, love and care has gone down compared to the case just a
few years ago. There is dire need to increase the level of care and spirituality instead of just the
physical health. The spirituality of a person highly affects their spirit, mind and body and is the
reason as to why it should be encouraged on patients. Since all staff members should be
committed, express good leadership and make use of dialogue and inquiry, not all people are
willing to uphold these qualities hence posing a challenge. Another challenge comes in where the
members of staff are not spiritually upright. This makes it hard to encourage spirituality on the
patients that they attend to hence another challenge. As noted by Green (2007), one of the
biblical scriptures can be found in the book of Genesis 1: 6 where it is stated that God made man
in his own image. In John 10: 11, Jesus is presented as a good shepherd because of his
dedication to people. For this reason, the staff members should also be good shepherds to
patients.
HEALING HOSPITAL: A DARING PARADIGM 5
References
Dossey, B. M. & Keegan, L. (2013).Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice. Sudbury, Mass:
Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Green, J.J. (2007). Binocular Vision: Featuring Genesis 1-5 and Genesis 6:1-6. Bloomington :
AuthorHouse.
Lundy, K. S., & Janes, S. (2009). Community health nursing: Caring for the public’s health.
Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.