Physician offered prayer and patient satisfaction.

Area of Science:

• Medical Ethics
• Patient-Physician Relationship
• Spirituality in Healthcare

Background:

• Physician-offered prayer is a debated topic, yet many physicians are inclined to incorporate it into practice.
• Understanding patient acceptance and satisfaction is crucial for integrating spiritual care.
• This study addresses the need for evidence on patient responses to physician-led prayer.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate patient acceptance of physician-offered prayer.
• To assess the impact of physician-offered prayer on patient satisfaction.
• To explore the feasibility of randomized trials for spiritual interventions.

Main Methods:

• A randomized-controlled trial involving 137 patients in a Southeastern family medicine practice.
• Patients were randomized to receive usual care plus an offer of physician-led prayer or usual care alone.
• Satisfaction surveys were administered post-encounter; acceptance rates and satisfaction scores were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Over 90% of patients accepted the offer of physician-led prayer.
• The offer of prayer showed no significant impact on patient satisfaction scores.
• The low number of patients declining prayer limited comparative analysis.

Conclusions:

• Patient responses to physician-offered prayer can be studied using randomized designs.
• A high acceptance rate was observed, but short-term satisfaction was unaffected.
• Future research should use larger, diverse samples to examine long-term effects on the physician-patient relationship.