Religion And Physical Therapy Research Paper

Introduction

In the world of today, the diversity of the religion, faith and spirituality is what majorly defines a good number of people and allows people to understand their experiences including illness and health. For the physical therapist to achieve a perfect performance to his or her patients, it is very important for them to understand the way in which to relate to patients of diverse culture and religion. The resent therapists strongly believe that giving special attention to spiritual and religion can contribute positively towards the health of the patient. It can also provide tools and hope for coping up with pain, aging and chronic illness. Some of the therapists are always not ready to include religion and spirituality in the physical therapy patient care. This is mainly due to lack of adequate training in addressing issues related to spirituality, inadequacy in time and some not being comfortable with the spiritual domain (Rippe et al, p. 157).
The introduction of the practice of inclusion of spirituality and hope in the field of physical therapy will provide the patients with hope therefore help most of the patients to manage the injuries, pain and illness they are undergoing. The relationship between the patients and the therapist will be very strong if the therapist shows the willingness and need to understand the religion of a patient he or she is attending to (Vanin et al, p. 202). Furthermore, the patient to find peace, it is very essential for the spiritual needs of the patients to be catered for. The physical therapist can be in a better position to provide the spiritual needs to the patient he or she is attending to. At the time the patient is going through a spiritual distress, the physical therapist is in a position to provide comfort to the patient through spiritual level bonding. This bonding allows the patient to confine himself spiritually to the physical therapist.
Even though it is not very clear how spiritual and religion influence the outcome of a patient, it is well understood that the understanding of the patient’s spirituality and religion is a very important tool of helping patients manage the chronic illness, aging and pain (Radomski et al, p. 292). In the field of physical therapy, the patients always face a lot of challenges which may include states of pain that are permanent, chronic and disability. These challenges however create the desire to participate in the leisure activities and the daily living activity performance. The physical therapist with the need of providing the best to his or her patient uses different approaches to come up with the best tool for handling the various cases. Among the tool selected includes the embracing of the patient religion and spirituality as a cultural competence component. Patient cultural and spirituality identification has now been incorporated in the physical therapy profession as part of the physical therapy treatment procedure.
Some of the mistakes that may result in the field of physical therapy as o result of religion ignorance may include: the inability to acquire enough information from the patient. For the physical therapist to get the correct and adequate information from the patient, good understanding of the patients cultural and spirituality is very important. Through embracing of the patient culture the physical therapist strengthens the relationship between him\ her with the patient. This good relation between the two will develop the trust of the patient towards the therapist. This will enable the therapist to get the right and all the information that he needs from the patient and provide the best solution to the problem. The second mistake that may result due to religion ignorance is providing the wrong reason to why something has or is not to be done. As a result of mistrust between the patient and the therapist that can mainly be developed by the therapist understanding of the patients cultural and spirituality. The wrong directive will majorly be as a result of the wrong information availed to the therapist by the patient. Therefore, cultural and spirituality understanding is very important in the physical therapist profession (Gabard et al, p. 105).

Conclusion

For an improvement in the health sector to be realized, spirituality and religion understanding is a very important tool that must be applied in all the treatment process as it has proven to have some positive effect towards the patient health. However in the field of physical therapist, patient spiritual and religion understanding is more important. This is because the profession majorly involves the one on one talking with the patient to provide all the needed information. The provided information is very important as they are the one to be used to either provide treatment to the patient or to lecture the patient in the way forward. As a result of the value of the information from the patient, the information must be correct and detailed. This can only be achieved when a trust exists between the patient and the therapist. The trust needed can only be built through the therapist understanding of the patients religion.

Work cited

Gabard, Donald L, and Mike W. Martin. Physical Therapy Ethics. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co, 2011. Internet resource.
Radomski, Mary V, and Catherine A. Trombly. Occupational Therapy for Physical Dysfunction. Baltimore, MD [etc.: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008. Print.
Rippe, James M, Sean McCarthy, and Mary A. Waite. The Joint Health Prescription: 8 Weeks to Stronger, Healthier, Younger Joints. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002. Print.
Vanin, John R, and James D. Helsley. Anxiety Disorders: A Pocket Guide for Primary Care. Totowa, N.J: Humana, c2008, 2008. Print.