In recent years, the healthcare industry has broadened its focus to include more attention to preventive care and wellness. Medical professions observe wellness to be a function of mind, body and spirit. Underscoring this is evidence of mounting interest in the spiritual component. According the American Medical Association, more than 50 U.S. medical schools were identified as offering elective courses in spirituality in 1999, including 19 awarded grants from the National Institute for Health Research.
Praying for a Cure
In November 2001*, the Gallup Poll asked Americans if they use prayer instead of getting medical treatment, use prayer in addition to getting medical treatment, or never use prayer. Sixty-seven percent (67%) report using prayer in a medical context, while 31% say they never use prayer in such a context. Thus, for a majority of the U.S. population, spirituality is an important component in the mind/body/spirit triumvirate. Furthermore, 25% of Americans report having personally asked someone else to pray as a means of curing a medical condition in the past 12 months.
Do Hospitals Meet Patients' Spiritual and Emotional Needs?
For a large portion of the U.S. population, the spiritual element is relevant in the healthcare-treatment model. Gallup offered the question of how well hospitals are meeting these patient needs as an optional item on patient satisfaction and loyalty surveys in 2000. There is probable self-selection bias in the results given the fact that those hospitals choosing to use the question are likely to be more spiritually focused than others are. Still, the numbers were favorable: of the 4,031 patients asked, nearly all (95%) reported being satisfied with having their spiritual and emotional needs met, with 47% very satisfied.
*Results are based on telephone interviews with 493 national adults, ages 18 and older, conducted Nov. 8-11, 2001. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±5 percentage points.