Supporting the Spiritual Care of Patients and Healers

Caring for the entire person, including their physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being, is a tenet of family medicine. There are many interventions being undertaken to continuously improve the health of our patients across all these dimensions. However, physicians, nurses, students and other healers who practice in family medicine may find themselves so consumed by the stresses of the job that burnout is a real possibility [1]. There are many negative consequences of burnout, including inattention to detail, poor communication with patients increased medical errors [2] and early retirement or leaving the field of medicine [3]. The same spiritual care which helps our patients heal from mental or physical illness can also promote greater physician resiliency and less burnout. This paper aims to describe several interventions which can improve the spiritual care of family medicine providers and patients. Some of these suggestions require significant time and planning to implement. Others can be adopted immediately. The reader is encouraged to consider which of these might be appropriate in his or her work environment.