Spirituality and Disease Management

Several members of our mission team noted that a didactic approach often closes the door to spiritual conversation and limits the development of excellent practices. In response selected members of our hospital staff developed a day-long retreat for nursing teams that included ample time for reflection and storytelling. The architects of the program comprised about 15 people including nurses, chaplains, physicians, managers and human resources specialists. Realizing that physicians will act more readily on truths that they discover themselves and on truths that are endorsed by physician colleagues whom they trust, we deleted much of the didactic material from the nurse program; we shortened the retreat by half to make it accessible for physicians. Attendance was best when we held the program between 4:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m. and included dinner. A safe environment is needed for the dialogue. While cerebral physicians usually talk at the “head” level, this dialogue effectively encourages physician conversations at the “heart” level. Storytelling nearly always brings best practices to the surface.