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The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape

Prayer and spirituality are aspects of patient care that are not often addressed in modem medical practice. Controversy surrounds the family practitioner's role regarding prayer. The patient's belief system and religion are neglected psychosocial variables. Prayer is accepted as an integral aspect o...

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Main Author: Liddle, Alfred Sydney
Other Authors: Schweitzer, Beverley
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Liddle, Alfred Sydney
author2 Schweitzer, Beverley
author_browse Liddle, Alfred Sydney
Schweitzer, Beverley
author_facet Schweitzer, Beverley
Liddle, Alfred Sydney
author_sort Liddle, Alfred Sydney
collection Thesis
description Prayer and spirituality are aspects of patient care that are not often addressed in modem medical practice. Controversy surrounds the family practitioner's role regarding prayer. The patient's belief system and religion are neglected psychosocial variables. Prayer is accepted as an integral aspect of therapeutic counselling, by pastoral counsellors. This is a qualitative study of a purposeful sample of 10 adult patients, selected by the author and three other family practitioners of different religious persuasions. All the participating doctors practise in the "township" areas of the Cape Peninsula. The intention is to gauge the patients' opinion on the family doctors' role regarding prayer and to determine whether differences in religion between the doctor and patient affects the patients' choice of doctor or their religious enquiry or discussion. The individual semi structured interviews are summarised in Venn diagrams. Results, after analysis, are presented collectively. The results confirm other studies and literature, viz. that there is a lack of religious inquiry, initiated by doctors. All respondents had, however, indicated that they would attend doctors of different religious persuasions. Most respondents felt that they would not discuss religious or spiritual issues and would only attend those practitioners for biomedical needs. The positive reinforcement of the doctor patient relationship, for respondents who shared spirituality or prayer with their practitioners, is a significant finding. A sample spiritual inquiry and respondents' suggestions to facilitate the introduction of spirituality into the family practice consultation are presented.
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
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publisher Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/25561 The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape Liddle, Alfred Sydney Schweitzer, Beverley Family Medicine Prayer and spirituality are aspects of patient care that are not often addressed in modem medical practice. Controversy surrounds the family practitioner's role regarding prayer. The patient's belief system and religion are neglected psychosocial variables. Prayer is accepted as an integral aspect of therapeutic counselling, by pastoral counsellors. This is a qualitative study of a purposeful sample of 10 adult patients, selected by the author and three other family practitioners of different religious persuasions. All the participating doctors practise in the "township" areas of the Cape Peninsula. The intention is to gauge the patients' opinion on the family doctors' role regarding prayer and to determine whether differences in religion between the doctor and patient affects the patients' choice of doctor or their religious enquiry or discussion. The individual semi structured interviews are summarised in Venn diagrams. Results, after analysis, are presented collectively. The results confirm other studies and literature, viz. that there is a lack of religious inquiry, initiated by doctors. All respondents had, however, indicated that they would attend doctors of different religious persuasions. Most respondents felt that they would not discuss religious or spiritual issues and would only attend those practitioners for biomedical needs. The positive reinforcement of the doctor patient relationship, for respondents who shared spirituality or prayer with their practitioners, is a significant finding. A sample spiritual inquiry and respondents' suggestions to facilitate the introduction of spirituality into the family practice consultation are presented. 2017-10-11T10:42:27Z 2017-10-11T10:42:27Z 1997 2017-07-11T12:38:21Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25561 eng application/pdf Department of Public Health and Family Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Family Medicine
Liddle, Alfred Sydney
The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape
title_full The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape
title_fullStr The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape
title_full_unstemmed The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape
title_short The patient's perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation : a qualitative study conducted in the Western Cape
title_sort patient s perception of the role of prayer in the family practice consultation a qualitative study conducted in the western cape
topic Family Medicine
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25561
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