Spirituality has become a magic bullet in health care. Clinicians rush to chart its effectiveness to study it in conditions as wide ranging as heart disease, mental illness, and end-of-life care to the extent that one shudders to think of the future headline: "Nine out of ten studies show spirituality is good for your health— 'Do it three times a day,' doctors say." Despite popular interest, many are confused or are skeptical that spirituality amounts to nothing but a bromide for what ails us. As the health care system welcomes spirituality, the ethicists among us imagine many speed bumps to its integration.
1. Some people just don't recognize it. As one wag noted about our historical amnesia: "Spirituality is an idea whose time has come—again." As a corporate value in faith-based health care institutions, however, spirituality has been practiced under the name of mission. As this edition's articles by Holstein and Perreten point out, health care is hardly as "Johnny come lately" to spirituality as it has long been lived out in terms of institutional mission.
2. Some don't see why it is important to health and health care. Even if you can recognize the many ways in which spiritualities are practiced, its value is not immediately apparent. With skinheads to massage therapists appropriating the term spirituality, there is an understandable skepticism that it is a passing fad, nice but not essential to health, perhaps simply a pious but empty platitude. As Shea's article suggests, we recognize healthy spiritualities in their fruit that among other outcomes promotes respect, compassion, listening, and peacefulness.
3. Some see spirituality as essential, but they misappropriate it. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions," as they say. One misstep can cause a mistaken understanding of spirituality. Shea's article highlights that the spiritual life is irreducibly unique. With a generalized theory of spirituality one can espouse the goodness of it without engaging the unique opportunity for spiritual growth amid suffering and loss. It is unlikely that the integration of spirituality into the health care industry will proceed without hitting such bumps!
4. Some will try to integrate spirituality into healthcare without enough forethought. As soon as the characteristics of a healthy spirituality and the necessity to make it part of our plan of care are clear, health care systems will be overwhelmed with integrating spirituality into training and practice.
If we are convinced that spirituality in healthcare is not mere topical ointment, but rather necessary for treating the whole person, then we best attend to the speed bumps before they become impasses.
