Nursing - Patient Spiritual Needs

Running head: NURSING
Patient’s Spiritual Needs
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Answer 1
Physician must only allow Mike to continue making decisions on behalf of their son
only after proper education about the disease progression and upcoming threats and projected
outcome of the kidney transplant. This is because, even after severe deterioration of James
death post delay in therapy due to spiritual activities. Mike still having wanting some miracle
to happen in the name of God and is skeptical about kidney transplant. Mike and his wife
would be sole decision maker for James and his prospective donor twin brother. This is
because the twin brothers are minor and thus incapable on making decision on their own as
per the medical ethics. Allowing James parents to execute autonomy on behalf of him
(James) might breach beneficence. Beneficence analyzes risk benefit analysis and kidney
transplantation within one year is the best-suited benefit for James as highlighted by the
doctors. The following autonomy of the James parents without health education and
awareness will also breach the ethics of non-malfeasance. Non-malfeasance condemns any
act that results in harm to any person (Lawrence, 2007). Parents are expected to take actions
in favor or benefit of their children (Neill & Coyne, 2018). If Mike is allowed to decision
without proper health education then his decision will go in favor of spiritual healing and thus
increasing the probable harm. Educating parents of James about the medical indications and
the consequences will help to make decision that goes in favor of medical treatment and
thereby helping to improve the overall quality of life of the entire family while helping to
respect the level of autonomy (Katz, Webb & Committee on Bioethics, 2016).
Answer 2
There is an active debate in Christianity in the domain of pain and death arising out of
illness and good health. The theological notion of Jesus suffering from pain and death is
described as redemptive valuation of suffering. In this domain, some Christians argue that

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hardship and pain arising out of sickness has a potentially transformative affect over the
religious adherent. According to Bible, healing can occur dramatically as in case of Jesus or
through God that contradicts medical justification. Bible preaches that it is never wrong to
pay for healing and this include freedom from pain (Camenisch, 2013).
O LORD you alone can heal me; you alone can save. My praises are for your alone!
Jeremiah 17:14 (Ferngren, 2016)
Health in Christianity is defined as a combination of both mental and physical health.
According doing good and serving to God helps in the generation of good health. Good
health is a symbol of God's manifestation of Spirit for the good of the entire church
(Ferngren, 2016). Kaldjian (2019) stated that for Christians, health itself is the virtue that
makes the presence of the human being felt in relation to another human being who is in pain,
or suffering from sickness. Health like all virtues is defined as a reflection of love towards
God.
Christians are encouraged to pray for God for the healing purpose, whether with the
help of medical intervention or without them. When the medical interventions fail to provide
any success, Christians mainly seek healing through prayer or recognize that it is the time that
they are require to submit patiently to God's will (Kaldjian, 2019).
Mike as a true Christian must seek blessings from God so that the medical
intervention (kidney transplant) works successful and the health and the immunity needs of
both his son are satisfied. As the famous saying goes, "God helps those, those who help
themselves". Thus, Mike should reason about trusting God as he has finds the compatible
donor for his son, James. This will help to secure the life of his son. Moreover, he must help
himself by giving consent in favor of the kidney transplant and pray for the operational
success of the organ transplantation. Conducting kidney transplantation will help to secure

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beneficence, as it will balance the benefits of the treatment against the involved costs and
risks (Ngaage et al., 2019). The transplantation of kidney from Mike's twin brother Samuel
might incur harm to later. However, the overall harm incurred is less than the overall benefit,
saving the life of James. In other words, it can be said that, non-malfeasance mean not
causing harm of inflicting least possible harm in order to achieve beneficial outcome. Harm
and its associated effects are regarded as a part of the ethical decision making process in
healthcare (Lawrence, 2007). Short-term and long-term harm (like in this case taking Samuel
as the kidney donor) are regarded as unintentional and are often regarded as options selected
for bigger good (life-saving treatment) (Ngaage et al., 2019).
Answer 3
Spiritual assessment enables the nursing professionals to identify the spiritual beliefs,
resources and practice of the patients and the same might cast a positive impact in their
health. Prayer is not the principal goal of the spiritual assessment. The physicians should
never attempt to make patient belief on specific faith issues (Timmins & Caldeira, 2017).
Conduction of the spiritual assessment will help the healthcare professionals to understand
the spiritual thought process of Mike along with the spiritual need of Mike. This will help in
the development of the person-centered intervention for Mike. The person-centered
intervention will be targeted towards designing customized educational plan for Mike. This
customized educational plan will help to gain informed consent in favor of James kidney
transplantation. If the spiritual assessment reveals that the spiritual thought process of Mike
follows an orthodox pattern then in-depth educational plan focusing Christianity, health and
illness will be development for obtaining consent for kidney transplantation. If Mike is found
worried for his another son, who is the prospective donor and is found cursing himself for the
poor health condition of both his son then alternative plan focusing on finding an adult
kidney donor and non-malfeasance might prove to be helpful (Tracy, 2017).

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References
Camenisch, P. F. (Ed.). (2013). Religious methods and resources in bioethics (Vol. 2).
Springer Science & Business Media.
Ferngren, G. B. (2016). Medicine and health care in early Christianity. JHU Press.
Kaldjian, L. C. (2019). Purpose and Providence: An Outline for Christian Practical Wisdom
in Health Care. Christian bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical
Morality, 25(2), 169-191.
Katz, A. L., Webb, S. A., & Committee on Bioethics. (2016). Informed consent in decision-
making in pediatric practice. Pediatrics, 138(2), e20161485.
Lawrence, D. J. (2007). The four principles of biomedical ethics: a foundation for current
bioethical debate. Journal of Chiropractic Humanities, 14, 34-40.
Neill, S. J., & Coyne, I. (2018). The Role of Felt or Enacted Criticism in Parents’ Decision
Making in Differing Contexts and Communities: Toward a Formal Grounded
Theory. Journal of family nursing, 24(3), 443-469.
Ngaage, L. M., Ike, S., Elegbede, A., Vercler, C. J., Gebran, S., Liang, F., ... & Johannesson,
L. (2019). The Changing Paradigm of Ethics in Uterus Transplantation: A Systematic
Review. Transplant International.
Timmins, F., & Caldeira, S. (2017). Assessing the spiritual needs of patients. Nursing
Standard (2014+), 31(29), 47.
Tracy, S. (2017). Integrating spiritual assessment and care in the relief and remission of
pain. Pain Management Nursing, 18(1), 1-2.

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