Faith Integration in Nursing
Faith Integration in End-of-life Issues
Faith is a necessary practice in pediatric nursing care because it provides patients with physical, emotional, and psychological wellbeing. Christian nurses should pay attention to everything that provides their pediatric patients with meaning in life. Faith-based nursing helps Christin nurses to build quality relationships with their patients and spiritual wellbeing. Nurse-patient relationships are vital in end-of-life issues to offer comfort, educate, and enable patients to die gracefully and with dignity. Death and the process of dying to evoke fear among patients (Batstone, Bailey, and Hallett, 2020). In Hebrews 2:15, Paul writes that “those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” People prefer suffering to death, and natural death is perceived as a nightmare by most patients. With such perceptions, the inevitability of death produces hopelessness leading patients to despair and anxiety.
Christian nurses can integrate their faith in overcoming the challenges of dealing with dying patients and their mortality. Nurses are likely to experience the reality of life through patient’s lives. As such, patients’ fear of death might instill fear in nurses. Having faith in scriptures such as Ecclesiastes 3:1, which states that there is time for everything, can help nurses accept death for God’s glory. Knowing that the world is their temporary home and that Jesus has secured their eternal life in heaven is vital to help nurses accept the reality of dying patients.
Christian nurses can integrate their faith to educate dying patients about life after death. In Philippians 1:19-26, Paul confidently asserts that “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Dying patients should be encouraged to face courage and perceive it as a gateway to a better life in life after death. Patients who are prepared and optimistic for a better experience are likely to have high levels of hope in death. Instilling confidence in dying patients reduces anxiety, anger, and feelings of hopelessness associated with end-of-life issues.
Christian nurses also should integrate their faith by leading patients into prayer, relaxation, and meditation. During therapy, nurses can pray for dying patients and read bible verses that encourage them to perceive death as a natural process. Christians can also use this opportunity to share their words of encouragement with patients struggling in the face of death. For example, reading Job 1:20-21 can teach a patient that God gives life, and He alone has the power to take it through death. In end-of-life issues, patients are provided with options such as physician-assisted suicide to end their life or use biomedical technologies to prolong their lives. A nurse should use scriptures to discourage patients against unethical practices against God’s will, such as PAS. Additionally, patients should be allowed to meditate on their lives on earth and repent their sins before death. Meditation will enable patients to experience the divine presence and reunite with God.
Most Christians believe that Jesus’ death on the cross signified good death wherein He accepted to die without any sin, and was too compassionate to forgive those who wronged Him. Christian nurses should use this perspective to handle dying patients with compassion and help them forgive and let go of all the mistakes made on earth. In so doing, nurses can encourage patients to repent their sins with an assurance of forgiveness and a Holy in life after death.
References
Batstone, E., Bailey, C., & Hallett, N. (2020). Spiritual care provision to end of life patients: A systematic literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing.
(2020). Retrieved 14 August 2020, from http://triggs.djvu.org/djvu-editions.com/BIBLES/KJV/Download.pdf