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Prayers in the clinic: how pediatric physicians respond
Wendy Cadge1, Elaine Howard Ecklund
1Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA. wcadge@brandeis.edu
Southern Medical Journal
|December 18, 2009
Summary
When patients and families initiated discussions about prayer, pediatric physicians responded in four ways: participating, accommodating, reframing, or referring. This study explores how prayer arises in clinical settings and physician responses.
Area of Science:
- Medical Ethics
- Pediatric Care
- Spirituality in Medicine
Background:
- Physician-patient interactions increasingly involve prayer.
- Research often overlooks how prayer arises in clinical settings, focusing instead on attitudes.
- This study investigates prayer's emergence and physician responses in pediatric care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine how prayer enters clinical contexts involving pediatric physicians.
- To understand the various ways pediatric physicians respond when prayer is introduced by patients or families.
Main Methods:
- In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 academic pediatricians and pediatric oncologists.
- Physicians were employed at top-ranked hospitals, ensuring a high standard of practice.
Main Results:
- Patients and families initiated discussions of prayer in nearly all instances.
- Prayer was predominantly raised when a child was seriously ill or nearing end-of-life.
- Pediatric physicians responded by participating, accommodating, reframing, or referring families to resources.
Conclusions:
- Physicians aimed to respect patient and family beliefs regarding prayer.
- Physician responses were a negotiation between requests, context, and personal comfort levels.
- Understanding actual prayer occurrences, not just attitudes, enhances discussions on spirituality in healthcare.
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