Religion & Spirituality Inside

This is an outstanding book! It is research based, well written in a conversational style. You feel as if Dr Koenig is speaking to you. It describes how spirituality is linked to positive health outcomes, how to assess patients of any spiriutality belief, and how to intervene to help them use their spirituality to improve their health. I use it in a course entitled Spirituaity in Nursing.
Rating: 5 / 5

Harold Koenig is a leading expert in the field of religion and health. He is a member of the faculty of the departments of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University. He has published widely in the areas of religion and mental health and geriatrics . He has co-authored or authored 15 books and 150 peer-reviewed journal articles. This pocket-sized book will be useful for clinicians, especially physicians, psychologists, social workers and nurses.

Prior to the year 2000, nearly 1200 studies had examined the relationship between religion and health, with the majority finding a link between religion and better health. In the past five years many new studies have also been conducted that support the findings from older ones. Before dismissing the findings on religion and health as irrelevant to patient care, clinicians should have a basic knowledge of the research that now exists.

Whether religion is good or bad for health, studies indicate that it is a powerful factor influencing adaptation to illness, medical decisions, health beliefs and behaviors. Although we continue to struggle with how to apply information relating religion and health to clinical practice, sensitive and sensible applications do exist. This little book is an excellent, practical resource that will help in doing just that.

Rating: 5 / 5

This 2007 second edition updates Koenig’s earlier edition written in 2001 and published in 2002. While some in the science and healthcare field might consider the Templeton Press imprint suspect, the fact of the matter is that Dr. Koenig — a psychiatrist on the faculty of the Medical School at Duke — is a respected and well-known authority on the relationship between health and spirituality; an area that the Templeton Foundation specifically funds research and publication.

Because Amazon’s “product description” is vague, and less than helpful, regarding the content; and, because others in this venue have already commented on Koenig’s reputation and the quality of this work, I will — instead — provide a descriptive, rather than an evaluative review.

When one scans the table of contents, it is readily apparent that Koenig is providing narrative from a series of lectures that surround and encompass his interest in ways healthcare professionals can identify and address the spiritual needs of their patients. He has studied the enormous body of research literature very carefully and interviewed hundreds of healthcare professionals to provide readers with the most current research and views regarding the integration of spirituality into patient care.

Of interest to proponents is his note that — despite JCAHO Accreditation Standards and the fact that the nursing profession has its roots in religious orders — only about 7 percent of patients have a spiritual history documented in their medical records. Why? Typically because doctors assume that such questions are dealt with by the hospital’s chaplain, a position that many hospitals have trimmed to pay for budget expansion elsewhere.

Arguing that “spiritual issues in patient care” are important because they are “an extension of patient centered medicine,” Koenig then explores the topic in the following contexts: Why include spirituality in patient care? How does a healthcare professional go about including spirituality in the healthcare provider-patient context? When is the most appropriate time or setting to discuss spirituality issues with a patient?

What might result – or, put another way, in what ways might the patient’s spirituality impact upon his prognosis and improvement? What about ethical and professional boundaries regarding this issue? And, then there is the problem of how best to address and deal with those times and situations where the patient’s religious and spiritual beliefs are harmful.

Koenig then explores the functional role and opportunities that spirituality might play for chaplains, nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, and those in the mental health field. This is followed by his ten-session model curriculum intended for such an audience that would cover religion, spirituality and medicine and a forty-page outline of basic information on the religious rituals, customs and tenets of many of the world’s religions that healthcare professional might find useful.

If, for no other reason, that hospital accreditation standards require healthcare providers to include the patient’s spiritual history in their records, this book should be an essential purchase for medical, nursing and hospital libraries. But, because it also serves religious leaders, psychologists and academics with a practical guide to the inclusion of spirituality in the realm of those suffering and confronting death, it should be of great interest and worthy of acquisition in college and university libraries as well.

R. Neil Scott

Middle Tennessee State University
Rating: 4 / 5