Spirituality is part of everyone. The whole person, mental and physical. While spirituality is more individual than social, many doctors do not give the holistic care to the entire being of the patient. Doctor sometimes focus more on the body, recovery and failure based on life or death. Many times the pastoral and spiritual issues are not identified. The patient has multiple needs and even for the non religious, many have spiritual needs or at least spiritual acknowledgement during grief and loss during care.
Many patients would like a more pastoral approach in healthcare. Please also review AIHCP’s Pastoral Thanatology Certification
The article, “Does spirituality belong at the doctor’s office?” by Jen Rose Smith takes a closer look for the need of pastoral and spiritual care of patients. She states,
“In fact, many patients would like to discuss spiritual matters with their health care providers: One study found that 83% of patients want physicians to ask about their spiritual beliefs, especially when they’re facing life-threatening illness, serious medical conditions and bereavement. “A high percentage of people, if they’re in the hospital for a physical illness, would like to talk to their physician about spiritual matters and have a conversation,” said Dr. John Graham, president and CEO of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center, a cosponsor of this month’s conference.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Pastoral Thanatology Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Pastoral Thanatology
Grief is part of life. As long as love and loss exist, grief will exist. The process of grief is an important part of growing and adjusting. It is not something that is to be rushed, ignored, or not valued. While it is an unpleasant part of life, the grieving process helps one heal and learn to live and adjust to the loss. Grief does not go away but one learns to live with it and the body and the mind must go through the process of grieving to properly adjust.
Grieving is a natural part of life. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your goals
The article, “Feeling Pressure to Grow from Grief” from “What’s Your Grief” takes a closer look at the importance of the grieving process. The article states,
“What can be missed is recognizing grief as a handbrake for the motion of life. It is an important and natural evolutionary force telling you to let yourself be, to sit, to grieve, to mourn. This leap to meaning can be an attempt to bypass the reality of loss.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.
Holistic approaches to health include an entire mind and body approach. These approaches look for less intrusive ways to resolve health issues both acute and chronic. Holistic psychotherapy is another type of holistic care that looks to help individuals overcome trauma and anxiety
Holistic therapies treat the whole person. Please also review AIHCP’s Holistic and Integrative Specialist Program
The article, “What Is Holistic Psychotherapy?” by Ashley Olivine looks closer at the nature of Holistic psychotherapy and how it works. She states,
“Holistic psychotherapy is a type of talk therapy that is based on the ideas of holistic psychology that the biological, psychological, and sociocultural components of each person come together to form the whole person. With this approach, all areas of a person and their life are considered and treated together. The idea behind this humanistic approach is that the individual pieces that make up each person cannot be separated. The holistic mind-body relationship includes the physical body interacting with the external environment, and the role of the brain in processing and interacting with the physical body and external environment.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Holistic and Integrative Specialist Program. Qualified nurses and healthcare professionals can earn a four year certification by completing the required independent study courses. The program is online and open enrollment.
Spirituality and a healthy life style coincide. Many who do not have a faith or religion may seem skeptical but the reality is when one places merit in a higher system beyond oneself, then one can find a variety of physical, emotional and spiritual benefits. Those who belong to a religion, or aspire to a certain individual spiritual path all can find the same benefits for overall health. Even those who follow no creed or spirituality can find value if they place themselves under a code or meaning of life itself. However, in this blog, we will only deal with spirituality itself.
In defining spirituality, this blog defines it as a personal and individual journey of any type of faith or metaphysical belief. Those who are also religious and follow a code also have their own unique spirituality but are also religious in nature. Religious individuals may not be very spiritual but socially active in their church or community or they may be very spiritually privately and also very religious and faithful to an established dogmatic code. All of these religious and spiritual journeys while unique all aid in a better out look in life itself and can help with physical, mental and emotional help. Some individuals may be only spiritual or religious, while others may possess both, but ultimately, the tying to a higher belief system beyond oneself has multiple benefits.
Spirituality is an important factor to health. Please also review AIHCP’s Spiritual Counseling Certification
Frankl, a holocaust survivor remarked that suffering without meaning is unbearable, but once meaning is given, suffering can transcend. In such a fallen world, meaning is given to suffering when one is spiritual or connects to a code higher than oneself. Erick Erickson also emphasized the importance of spiritual development as a step in life as well its importance with dying. Those dying who attribute to a higher end than themselves can find more meaning in their suffering, as well as can activate within the body, the ability to heal itself in some cases. Recovery itself has a greater ability to occur. This is not to dismiss true miracles, but there is a true mental connection between mind and body for those with positive mindsets and their ultimate recovery.
Spirituality and overall health are deeply connected not only when sick but throughout life itself. The connection to a higher code or higher being or deeper connection can be very beneficial for people on many fronts.
On the outset, a higher meaning in something, leads to a better out look on life. Behind life is meaning and that meaning can guide one spiritually in understanding reality. Greater happiness and peace can come to individuals who have a paradigm structure of existence. Although those paradigms can be challenged when disaster strikes and cause world view challenges, many fall back on their faith, beliefs, or spirituality and find solace. Hence, spirituality is able to help individuals be more happy with life itself due to an overall direction and understanding of it, as well as a system to deal with stressors and problems.
For many, this spirituality enhances social connections and helps one improve existing relationships. Spirituality helps one see the needs of others and enhances compassion and gratitude in life. It helps prevent selfishness and self absorption and focuses on creating an overall balance in life. This naturally leads to a multitude of life long benefits.
The immune system is strengthened when one exists in a positive mindset. While multiple factors play into health, one aspect is spirituality. The body is better able to function when in higher spirits and able to recover and heal. Meditation and mindfulness are all spiritual practices that can ease the body and allow the immune system to function without additional strain and also release the necessary hormones for self healing.
Spirituality can also help prevent possible depression. With deeper connections in life, one is more attune with self and balanced. Hence spirituality can help prevent or minimize depression. It can also help one who is experiencing depression. Again many factors come into play, but the positive nature of spiritual life can be critical to mental health.
A connection to something-whether deity, belief, social view or type of paradigm is important to life meaning and also health itself
Obviously spiritual people or individuals at least connected to a higher code than themselves have a unique way to view the world and understand it. The importance is not so much whether the world view is correct or incorrect but that the person believes it. This belief has potential to unlock various healing abilities in the body as well as help the person face everyday problems. Everyone experiences stress but how one deals and copes with stress is key. Spiritual individuals have a better success rate of dealing with stress due to world view and belief. This in turn leads to a calmer life that does not activate the body’s stress response. With the body not in fight or flight mode or experiencing chronic stress, there are better healthy outcomes in regards to sleep, heart health, and blood pressure. Stress kills but spirituality can limit the dangerous effects of unneeded stress.
While there are numerous factors to health itself, one cannot dismiss the importance of spirituality and merely toss it to the side. Life meaning is key to direction in life and maintaining an overall balance in life itself. Connection to something more than oneself and its benefits are no secret. For the most part, a healthy spiritual life or connection to something bigger than oneself is essential for a better world view and healthier physical, mental and emotional life.
Please also review AIHCP’s Spiritual Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Spiritual Counseling.
AIHCP also offers a Christian Counseling Certification.
School shootings are a parent’s and community’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, the wave of these national tragedies continue to rise and answers are still yet to be found on how to stop the senseless killing of children and teachers in schools due to mentally unstable individuals with guns.
The facts are alarming. The “Sandy Hook Promise” organization lists a variety of horrific gun and children related facts. Overall, each day 8 children die from gun violence and are the leading cause of death for children and teens. Unfortunately, despite the alarming number of school shootings, many could be avoided. In 4 out of every 5 shootings, at least one person knew beforehand or could have prevented it through proper vigilance and acknowledgement of the warning signs. Many of the attackers showed signs in the weeks before the attack with as many as 75 percent of individuals noticing the alarming and threatening behaviors. Finally, 68 percent of the time, most of the firearms were taken from the home due to improper storage of the weapon or parents did not believe the child knew where the gun was stored.
School shootings are a national pandemic that causes intense grief to parents, families, students, teachers and communities
This leads to two alarming trends. First mental health and second gun safety and laws. Better mental health care is required for youth as well as facilities to care for those exhibiting abuse, drug use as well as bullying. Secondly, better gun control laws without restricting freedoms need to be in place to protect children and schools. Yet, with political tug of war in Washington, little traction has been made, much less real solutions due to extremes that cannot reach common sense solutions.
The frightening reality is that shootings occur, children die and families deal with immense grief. Grief Counseling and trained grief counselors has risen due to these traumatic events. Families and victims need counseling from professional counselors, as well as certified grief counselors who can help with the local school district in helping teachers, staff, families and students with their grief and its processing.
In understanding a school shooting and its impact, it needs to be clearly classified as a traumatic event. PTSD is definitely a possible short term and long term lingering effect on many students and staff. This is especially made worst, since it was a human caused evil that baffles all logic and sense. Individuals are left with survival guilt, death imprint and imaging that is difficult to be associated into the mind due to the extreme graphic visuals.
Traumatic events can trigger PTSD and complicated grief such as depression. Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Training
In counseling, all of these issues will be difficult to address and many may seek avoidance but the incident will continue to haunt. Until the loss and trauma is discussed in a healthy way, then and only then can grief healing take place. Following this though is the grieving process itself which can lead to complicated grief itself and depression due to the horrific nature.
Parents losing children, classmates losing friends, teachers losing students and communities being scattered suffer both individual and collective grief at various levels. All parties need help in processing the loss and caring for each other in healing and preventing anyone from being left behind. Support groups, individual counseling and helping others adjust to life after such a horrific event are parts of dealing with the crisis and part of the process of grief counseling.
Memorials, remembrance, social action and community outreach can help some heal, but the scars will always remain visible and apparent. Sandy Hook is only one sad reminder of these events in recent American history and continue to haunt so many more.
As grief counselors, it is not the purpose necessarily to find answers because there are no true answers to complete evil and trauma. Instead, it is the purpose to help others overcome trauma and find some balance in life. To try to help the loss find a place in the narrative of a person’s life and where that person will go in the future. Such tragic grief and loss usually does not end well though and it should not because it is so horrific, evil and traumatic. Love has been uprooted and painful loss inserted. It is a life long practice to learn to cope with the loss that will forever haunt everyone involved in such needless chaos.
Learning to help those through such difficult events is a process for qualified professionals. Grief even traumatic grief is unique and every student or teacher will react and recover within their own paradigms. Some may be prone to PTSD, while others will deal with naturally grieving and process it. Others may be extremely guilty and have more vivid death imprints. Others will be traumatized more due to relationships that were deeper. This involves a long process of vetting, questions and determinations to see who is highest risk to PTSD and complicated grief reactions.
If you would like to learn more about Grief Counseling or would like to become a certified Grief Counselor then please review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Grief Counseling.
Grieving over something that has not yet occurred is referred to as Anticipatory Grief. When someone is terminal and dying, Anticipatory Grief is common as one grieves the event before it occurs.
Please also review AIHCP’s Grief Counseling Courses and see if they meet your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals looking for a four year certification in Grief Counseling
Drug addiction is a horrible disease that individuals endure. Those addicted go through many symptoms and withdraws when dealing with drugs. These symptoms can be physical, mental and emotional. Substance Abuse Counselors and licensed counselors can help individuals face addiction and learn how to cope with the issues that surround it.
Addiction causes mental, emotional and physical havoc on the person. Please also review AIHCP’s Substance Abuse Counseling Program
The article, “What Is Drug Addiction?” by Laura Dowart looks closer at the physical and mental symptoms surrounding addiction. She states,
“The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) defines drug addiction as “a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences.” People with drug addictions continue to use drugs compulsively despite the harmful consequences. Drug addiction can lead to serious health consequences and even death. However, it’s preventable and treatable.”
In the current labor market, employee retention is more important than ever. Some are describing the current period as ” the great resignation.” With the impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic causing many to reassess their employment and change jobs, this is doubly true in the healthcare industry, which was of course the industry most involved with dealing with the pandemic. Employers are looking for effective strategies to increase employee well-being and therefore retention, which will reduce turnover and costs associated with hiring new employees.
Why Do Employees Leave?
To come up with useful employee retention strategies, it is first important to understand why employees leave their positions. Once we understand this, we can attempt to mitigate these circumstances as much as possible. The two biggest quoted reasons are usually salary and benefits or feeling overworked. In the healthcare industry, the second option here is usually key. In fact, even pre-pandemic, the turnover rates of US hospitals were seeing a small but steady climb, reaching 19.5% in 2020. Replacing employees is expensive and time-consuming, which is why employee retention planning is also a budgetary issue. One sensible idea is to implement an exit interview or survey when an employee moves on, in which you ask them to outline exactly why they are leaving. This data will help you more effectively design your benefits and retain future employees.
Retaining employees is critical to building strong teams and nurturing talents. The key to employee retention is keeping employees both happy and motivated. This can be a particular struggle within healthcare, an industry where long hours and a high-stress environment is commonplace. All is not lost though, as there are still effective ways to increase happiness and motivation in any work environment, and they might just be the key to reducing your turnover rates.
Review Salaries And Provide Better Work Arrangements
The first thing that should be assessed is the salaries offered. Are they lower than the industry average? Remember, lower salaries may seem like a smart financial decision but can incur “hidden” costs if they are contributing to a high turnover rate, as money is spent on replacing and onboarding new employees. These days, employees are also seeking more flexible working arrangements, and this should be implemented wherever possible.
Make Employees Feel Valued
The next step is to ensure employees feel rewarded outside of salary. Some of the most effective ways to reward employees don’t have to cost the earth, and although salary should be considered here, smaller gestures can go a long way in making an employee feel valued – rewarding employees on a budget is perfectly possible. One idea you could implement is to start weekly or monthly lunches to build morale and foster teamwork. Also, ensure hard work is recognized – for example, the gesture of sending a card can go a long way and lets employees know their work is being noticed.
Offering wellness perks such as discounted gym memberships or free classes are also a great idea, as employees that are fit and healthy are much more likely to be happy. Regular surveys where employees can express their concerns or ideas is a great option – as long as you then act on these. Not only will this increase workplace morale but it also gives your employees the chance to change their working environment for the better, empowering them to do better work.
Employee retention can be a particular struggle within the healthcare industry, which has such a high turnover rate. However, there are some important strategies that can be implemented to help mitigate this. Offering perks to increase employee happiness will go a long way, but overall, the most important thing is understanding why employees leave. The use of employee surveys will help you optimise your strategy and create a working environment that they want to be in.
Please also review AIHCP’s Healthcare Manager Program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The program in online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a Healthcare Manager Program
Eastern techniques and herbal remedies can play big dividends with health but they need to be properly utilized and understood. This requires a healthcare professional who knows how to implement Eastern remedies in unison with Western medications. It can be dangerous to randomly create one’s own health plan without consulting a professional. This is because many medications may not mix or match with certain herbal remedies. Holistic Integrative Professionals can play a key role in helping individuals properly utilize medication.
Holistic medicine is about balance. Please also review AIHCP’s Holistic Integrative Specialist Program
The article, “Ayurveda: The Science Of Life” from “VITEBRITE” looks at the positives of Ayurveda and how to properly utilize it with one’s health. The article states,
“Ayurveda may be one of the oldest holistic health systems in the world but it’s still widely practised today in many cultures. In India, for instance – where it’s been practised for 5,000 years or so – ayurveda still provides health care to 65% of people in rural areas (says the World Health Organization). This means there are millions of people who rely on ayurveda as their main – and often only – source of healthcare. ”
Please also review AIHCP’s Holistic Integrative Specialist Program and see if it meets your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified healthcare professionals seeking a four year certification as a Holistic Nurse.
Forensic Nurses play a key role in helping victims and police find justice. Many SANE nurses also become certified Forensic Nurses as well and help supply their expertise in collection of evidence for DNA during sexual assault crimes, as well as providing testimony for cases involving detailed expert advice.
AIHCP offers a four year certification for nurses in Forensic Nursing. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified healthcare professionals seeking a certification as a Forensic Nurse. Please review and see if the program meets your academic and professional goals
Written By Lucy Peters