World Religions For Healthcare Professionals

Welcome to world religions from a healthcare perspective! The study of
world religions offers you the opportunity to more adequately meet the

needs of your patients and clients, because you will possess a more accu-
rate knowledge of their religious beliefs and practices.

Extensive research supports the claim that patients who actively partici-
pate in a religion enjoy a longer life span and shorter stays in hospital than

their counterparts. In a seminal, critical review, Jeff Levin (1994: 1475–82)
concluded that the available published research at that time supported an
association between religion and health, that the association is valid and
was probably causal. Subsequent research has served to confirm this early
position. Levin continues to study this phenomenon and a large body of
literature has developed in the subsequent years (2001).
Evidence that the financial interests of a hospital are better served when
the religious needs of patients are addressed while in the hospital has led to
a growing use of spiritual assessment tools by both physicians and nurses,
and the introduction of spirituality and medicine into the curricula of
medical schools. In 1994 only 17 out of 126 medical schools offered
courses in medicine and spirituality. By 2004 the number had risen to 84
schools (Fortin and Barnett 2004: 2883).

Source: Abstract