Books
Craigie FC. (2010). Positive spirituality in health care: Nine practical approaches to pursuing wholeness for clinicians, patients and health care organizations. Minneapolis: Mill City Press.
Case examples, interview transcripts, research perspectives and pragmatic strategies about the personal groundedness and spiritual well-being of clinicians, the clinical encouragement of patients’ spiritual resources, and the organizational cultivation of spirited leadership and “soul.”
Henry LG, Henry JD. (1999). Reclaiming soul in health care: Practical strategies for revitalizing providers of care. Chicago: Health Forum.
Written by two organizational consultants, the book summarizes the importance of “soul” in businesses and describes strategies to enhance qualities of soul for health care professionals and for health care organizations.
King DE. (2000). Faith, spirituality and medicine: Toward the making of the healing practitioner. New York: Haworth.
Exploration of the relationship between patient health and traditional religious beliefs and practices. Background about spirituality and health, assessing spirituality, ethics, chaplaincy, short section on integrating spirituality in practice. Author is a family physician.
Kliewer SP, Saultz J. (2006). Healthcare and spirituality. Abingdon, UK: Radcliffe.
Kliewer is a pastoral caregiver who has been active in the spirituality interest group of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Saultz is a family physician and educator. Designed as “an introductory textbook.” Background on spirituality and health, cultures and beliefs of different religious traditions, spiritual assessment and spiritual intervention (“creating trust, creating awareness, stimulating change, facilitating change”). Many case examples and good questions for reflection.
Koenig HG. (2007). Spirituality in Patient Care: Why, How, When, and What (2nd Ed.). West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton.
Good descriptions of opportune circumstances in health care in which to address pts’ spirituality and approaches with which to do this. Excellent summary of the literature on spiritual assessment and collection of resources, circa 2002. Oriented more to “religion” than to “spirituality” per se. The helpful chapter on “When religion is harmful” and handling religious conflicts.
Levin, J., (2001) God, faith and health: Exploring the spirituality-healing connection. New York: Wiley.
Excellent formulation about the links between health and a variety of spiritual beliefs and practices. Levin, an epidemiologist formerly at Eastern Virginia Medical School and NIMH, now living as a farmer and writer in rural Kansas, has done absolutely exquisite work over the years on spirituality-healing connections and mechanisms of association.
Miller, WR (Ed.) (1999). Integrating spirituality into treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Excellent scholarly overview with ample practical illustrations and recommendations. Great chapters on mindfulness, prayer, spiritual surrender, acceptance and forgiveness, hope, and serenity.
Puchalski CM, Ferrell B. (2010). Making health carewhole: Integrating spirituality into patient care. West Conshohoken, PA: Templeton.
Dr. Puchalski is Founder and Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health (see website below), and a practicing physician. The book presents background on spiritual care practices and standards, and models and approaches for interdisciplinary spiritual care, with particular reference to palliative care.
Sorajjakool S, Lamberton H (Eds). (2004). Spirituality, health, and wholeness: An introductory guide for health care professionals. Binghamton, NY: Haworth.
Sorajjakool is a professor of religion, psychology, and counseling at Loma Linda University. Chapters on wholeness and mind/body/spirit connections, trauma, illness and meaning, and spirituality in working with “difficult patients,” among others.
White BF, MacDougall JA. (2001). Clinician’s guide to spirituality. New York: McGraw Hill.
Written by a physician and a chaplain, presents a universal model of spirituality that is independent of religion, and shows how the clinician can apply the model to help in the management of chronic illness. Twelve principles of spirituality applied to health: honesty, hope, faith, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, compassion, justice, perseverance, spiritual awareness, service.
Articles
Anandarajah G. (2008). The 3H and BMSEST models for spirituality and multicultural whole-person medicine. Ann Fam Med, 6(5), 448-58.
Description of two models for a biopsychosocial-spiritual view of health from chair of the STFM spirituality interest group. They are the 3 H model (head, heart, hands) and the BMSEST models (body, mind, spirit, environment, social, transcendent). See HERE.
Cassel EJ. (1982). The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. NEJM, 306(11), 639-45.
Classic article on the nature and relief of suffering. Many more recent iterations, including a book with the same title (no movie yet), but this is the vanguard 1982 version in NEJM.
Craigie FC, Hobbs RF. (1999). Spiritual perspectives and practices of family physicians with an expressed interest in spirituality. Fam Med, 31(8), 578-85.
Qualitative content analysis of long interviews with 12 family physicians, revealing their perceptions of 1) taking a vital clinical role as encouragers of patients' spiritual resources, 2) a vital role of their personal spirituality as an underpinning of the vocation and practice of family medicine, and 3) the key roles of respectful dialogue and mentoring in medical education about spirituality.
Daaleman TP, Usher BM et al. (2008). An exploratory study of spiritual care at the end of life. Ann Fam Med, 6(5), 406-11.
A qualitative study of perceptions of clinicians and other health care workers about end of life spiritual care. Themes included being present, providing care that went beyond medical treatment, and engaging in a fluid process of “an affirmation of the patient's life experience and led to the generation of a wholistic care plan that focused on maintaining the patient's humanity and dignity.” See HERE.
Dossey L. (1999). Healing and the nonlocal mind. Alt Therapies, 5(6), 85-93.
Thoughtful conversation about nonlocal effects. “The power of consciousness to act nonlocally is the elephant in the living room of medicine.”
Egnew T. (2005). The meaning of healing: Transcending suffering. Ann Fam Med, 3(3): 255-62.
Recent qualitative study of the meaning of healing, based on open-ended interviews with seven physicians, including Cassell, Siegal and Kubler-Ross. Healing an “intensely personal experience… associated with themes of wholeness, narrative, and spirituality." See HERE.
Hsu C, Phillips WR et al. (2008). Healing in primary care: A vision shared by patients, physicians, nurses, and clinical staff. Ann Fam Med, 6(4), 307-14.
Qualitative analysis of focus group conversations with 84 health care clinicians and staff. Healing as “a multidimensional process with physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.” See HERE.
Kliewer, S. (2006). Allowing spirituality into the healing process. J Fam Pract, (53/8), 616-24.
Historical perspective on relationship of spirituality and medicine, very nice summary of outcomes research with methodological annotations, paradigm from chaplain author about spiritual assessment and collaborative intervention.
Levin J. (2009). How faith heals: A theoretical model. Explore. 5/2, 77-96
Epidemiological data and philosophical reflections on associations between faith and health, describing “behavioral/conative, interpersonal, cognitive, affective, and psychophysiological” mechanisms
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McCord G, Gilchrist VJ et al. (2004). Discussing spirituality with patients: A rational and ethical approach. Ann Fam Med, 2(4), 356-61
Survey of over 1000 family medicine patients about their preferences for physician inquiry about spirituality. Over three-quarters of respondents wished to have spiritual conversation in some circumstances, primarily in the interest of promoting patient/physician understanding and hope. See HERE
Puchalski C.M. (2001). The role of spirituality in health care. Baylor Univ Med Ctr Proceedings, 14(4), 352-357.
One among many iterations from Dr. Puchalski about why a spiritual understanding of patients' is vital in medicine, with implications for clinical practice (e.g., compassionate presence, listening to patients’ “fears, hopes, pain and dreams,” spiritual assessment, and collaborative care).
Puchalski C.M., McSkimming S. (2006). Creating Healing Environments: An Initiative Seeks to Restore "Heart and Humanity" to Depersonalized Health Care. Health Progress, May/June, 87(3).
Elegant initiative in seven medical centers across the country “to develop and test strategies that encourage clinical caregivers to attend to patients' spiritual concerns; and, second, to better understand the organizational values and infrastructure that support increasing the spiritual care that caregivers provide.” .
Websites
Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health
Organized by Harold Koenig, the Center conducts and disseminates research and trains professionals to conduct research at the convergence of spirituality, theology and health. Comprehensive list of research articles posted, although without annotation.
The Fetzer Institute
Michigan-based, internationally-prominent nonprofit encouraging the power of love and forgiveness in individuals and systems. Great audio and video collections… Desmond Tutu, Parker Palmer, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, among many others. Significant print resources, including monographs on spirituality in community and public life, and on multidimensional instruments for measuring religiousness and spirituality in health research.
The Forgiveness Web
Comprehensive compilation of forgiveness resources… articles, books, videos, links. Good sub-sections; grief, self-forgiveness, sexual abuse, The Holocaust, among others. Extraordinarily touching “Apology Room,” where people anonymously post messages seeking forgiveness and affirming life change.
The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health
Founded in 2001 by Christina Puchalski, MD, GWISH is involved with medical education, research, and interdisciplinary initiatives in spiritual care. Partners with the John Templeton Foundation on a number of projects, notably grants to medical education programs for spirituality curriculum development and a beginning Spirituality and Health Online Education and Resource Center (SOERCE). New multimedia guide to spiritual assessment, featuring the FICA spiritual history tool.
Gratefulness.org
Brother David Stiendl-Rast, OSB, is certainly one of the leading contemporary writers on the subject of gratitude. Website has articles, an inventory of gratitude practices, some lovely visual images, and not-to-be-missed “virtual candle-lighting” exercise.
Health Progress
Health Progress is a bi-monthly journal published by the Catholic Health Association of the United States. A publication venue for a large number of practical articles about spirituality and health care, leadership, and organizational culture. Searchable subject index for each issue, full-text available back to 1992.
Institute of Noetic Sciences
IONS is a nonprofit organization that “conducts and sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness—including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor.” The name “noetic” refers to “inner knowing” or “intuitive consciousness.” Research, electronic and print publications, events, retreat center. Searchable keyword index to full-text IONS publications from websites and journals.
Institute for Research on Unlimited Love
Website coordinated by Stephen Post, PhD, Professor, Department of Bioethics, Case School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve. Research summaries, articles, links about altruism, compassion, and service.
Spirituality & Health
Website of the long-running Spirituality & Health magazine. Articles by prominent authors on soulful living… “body,” “soul,” and “earth.” Full-text content of current issues available a few weeks after publication, along with searchable full-text archives of past issues. Forums, eCourses, newsletter, self tests about spiritual well-being, gratitude, forgiveness, and other subjects.
This I Believe
Inspired by 1950s radio program hosted by Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe is a nonprofit organization that solicits and distributes short essays about people’s core values that guide their daily living. Famous people, regular folk, many with extraordinarily compelling stories to tell. Published in book and CD format, the essays are most widely available as a weekly feature and podcast on NPR. Website has a “browse essays by theme” feature… creativity, kindness, hope, parenthood, etc.