What you have learned about the importance of culture and religion in the healthcare setting?

Religion, belief and culture should be recognized as potential sources of moral purpose and personal strength in healthcare, enhancing the welfare of both clinicians and patients amidst the experience of ill-health, healing, suffering and dying. Good doctors understand their own beliefs and those of others.

How does religion influence health?

Religiousness, including formal religious affiliation and service attendance, is associated with better health habits, such as lower smoking rates and reduced alcohol consumption. Spirituality, including meditation and private prayer, helps regulate emotions, which aids physiological effects such as blood pressure.

What did Hippocrates think caused disease?

Hippocrates and other doctors worked on the assumption that all diseases had a natural cause rather than a supernatural one. Priests believed that an illness such as epilepsy was caused by the gods. Hippocrates believed that with all other illnesses it had a natural cause.

Do you believe spirituality and religion have an important place in medicine?

In summary, spirituality can be an important element in the way patients face chronic illness, suffering, and loss. Physicians need to address and be attentive to all suffering of their patients—physical, emotional, and spiritual. Doing so is part of delivery of compassionate care.

Why is it important to have an understanding of and appreciation for the beliefs and religious preferences of your patients?

Being ill or on the brink of death in a medical facility or hospital is a very traumatizing experience for patients and their families. When healthcare professionals respect their religious preferences, patients can enter into a state of peace before a procedure or before they die.

Why is religion important in medical history?

Physicians should be aware of the role that religion plays in how patients cope with illness. The physician does so by taking a spiritual history that identifies religious or spiritual needs and then coordinates the resources needed to meet those needs.

What religions do not believe in medical treatment?

Today, many religious groups routinely reject some or all mainstream health care on theological grounds, including Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Amish and Scientologists.

What did the Greeks believe caused disease?

Greeks believed that evil spirits or angry gods caused diseases, and that the gods such as Asclepius, son of Apollo, could heal and cure diseases. Sacrifice and prayer, often at Asclepius’ shrine, were common methods of seeking remedy.

What did Hippocrates think was the best way to treat illnesses?

The books were written for different fields of medicine—physicians, pharmacists, and the layperson, not so much to practice medicine, but to be able to talk with the doctor. According to the Corpus, Hippocratic medicine recommended a healthy diet and physical exercise as a remedy for most ailments.