A Healing Hospital: A Daring Paradigm
Introduction
It has been well documented that when people are asked where they would prefer to die, the most common answer is, "At home." The sad fact is that most people draw their last breath at a hospital or some other type of health institution (Gomes, Higgins, 2006). The hospital environment has not been traditionally known as a spiritual place that promotes a loving, pleasing and compassionate environment. Although, a hospital is known to provide a cure for many physical ailments, it is not an environment that adequately promotes the ability to deal with a patient's death or the patient's healing process. The differences between the healing process and a cure is that in the Western medicine philosophy, the intention is to eradicate the disease. The patient is seen as a series diagnoses and symptoms, while in the healing process, the intention is that the patient return to a state of holistic wellness and recovery (Gomes, Higgins, 2006).
The following few paragraphs will attempt to describe a new concept that hospitals have adopted in order to promote a spiritual place that will effectively create an environment that allows a patient and their family to better deal with the death or the healing of a loved one. Most importantly the environment also includes components of healing and spiritualism that will help meet the demands of tending to their heart as well as their head. The challenges of adopting such a paradigm of healing processes will also be addressed.
Concepts of a Healing Hospital
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, recently recognized as number one in the top-ten healing hospitals, has described the concept of a healing hospital as having three major components. First of all, the hospital must have a physical healing environment. For example, the patients must be cared for in a considerate, compassionate and