NEED HELP -- physicians to offer opinion: Southern Medical Journal

[nashville_brook]

I've been contacted to write an opinion piece for the Southern Medical Journal on the topic of "Spirituality in Medicine." The journal is kicking off a new segment on the subject and are looking for 2 patients and 2 physicians to speak to pro and con of the issue.

They have everyone lined up except for a physician to speak to the con side. I'm writing from the perspective of a patient who disagrees with mixing medicine and religion.

If you are interested in contributing 750 words to this please PM me and I will get you in contact with the editors. It's an unpaid thing -- but it's just a handful of words and it's only opinion. Perhaps there's an MD DU'er here who has already produced writing on the subject?

Thanks in advance. Brook

[Sgent]

1. Can you be more specific?

The editorial premise "There should be no spirituality in medicine." seems to be overly broad. Many athiest physicians use spirituality as a tool all the time, and wouldn't agree with that statement.

[nashville_brook]

2. they are getting 4 opinions: 2 patients, 2 physicians

one patient and one physician will speak to why it's a good thing if religion/spirituality are practiced in medicine; and the other two to speak against.

here's what the editor wrote me when i asked her the same question:

As far as the question is concerned, we really don’t have any specifics. We just want your opinion on why you believe spirituality should not be incorporated into medicine. Since you have a personal experience, we would like you to briefly relate that (without mentioned the doctor’s name, of course), and then perhaps talk about other potential pitfalls. You are free to discuss whatever you like, but I’ll give you a list of a few of my concerns regarding this issue. The first one, obviously, is judgment. If a physician has specific religious beliefs, and brings them into the office, how will that affect patient care? Another one, in my mind, is a potential problem with different religions. If a white patient is seeing a dark-skinned, foreign-born physician, how will spirituality be incorporated into the practice? Or will it? Or vice versa, if a Chinese or Middle-Eastern patient is seeing a white Christian physician, how will that be handled? Will physicians have to go through training in order to deal with a variety of religious beliefs? Or will they just have a network of spiritual advisors that they will refer the patients to? Another aspect to think about is marketing. If a physicians’ group markets themselves as Christian, will it turn off patients who aren’t Christian? And can Christian physicians treat non-Christian patients objectively?

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personally, i think they are confusing religion and spirituality and intend to speak to that in my piece along with a pragmatic and historical critique.