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Derry News/Eagle Tribune FIELDING QUESTIONS ON PATIENTS FINDING SPIRIT DERRY – Laura Knoy of New Hampshire Public Radio was the moderator for the “Spirituality and the Cancer Journey” program. Since there was close to 200 guests in the audience, participants wrote down their questions on paper. She grouped them according to topic and addressed them to the panel member she felt could best answer. Q. Many patients ask, “Hey God, why me?” Q. How can the system nurture health care providers? A. Douglas Weckstein: “I don't have the answer. I think we need to meet more with pastoral care to address this.” Q. Do people with strong faith heal better or recover? A. Weckstein: “There have been studies published looking at the value of prayer. Most of these studies show that faith and spirituality help with coping. Do tumors shrink? This has not been researched. I do see faith as a tool for coping – for floating along the river with during the journey.” Q. What if you're not sure about a spiritual being? A. Mary-Lou Armstrong: “I'm not deeply religious. Spirituality is everything to me. People are the greatest things ever invented – right after cats and dogs. Don't put expectations on God.” Q. Do you have to have a spiritual background to be a good cancer patient? A. The Rev. Walter Moczynski: “We all believe in something. That belief itself is sacred. I once went into the room of a physicist who was dying. He told me that he didn't believe in God. He said that he believed in the string theory and cosmos. ‘It brought me in and it will bring me out,' he said. I listened and accepted what he believed. He died peacefully.” Q. How do you get support in addressing spirituality with patients? A. Weckstein: “We generally don't cross that line, because we don't want to talk about it very much. Tonight, we are learning how to talk about it. My patients and you, the audience, could probably teach me a lot.” Moczynski: “Doctors are taught, ‘Above all, do no harm.' They are afraid that they won't know how to respond if they cross the line by asking the patient about spirituality. I tell them just to listen to the patient's story. We have a long way to go, but we're making progress.” • How can you focus on spirituality in the case of childhood cancer? Where was God? • Moczynski: “It is very painful. Time alone doesn't help your pain. It's what you do with the time that can help. I will have a lot of questions when I meet God face to face.” Waterman: “Our life is a pilgrimage. The heart if the holiest of places. I have to believe that our Lord is just as said when he receives a child.” • How do you respond to patients who reject medical care for faith-based healing? • Weckstein: “We address this regularly. Patients decline interventions for reasons that are related to their spiritual belief. We have to respect this. We do our best to convince them that they stand to lose a lot by refusing treatment. The best we can do is to be honest with our patients.” • How do you begin to dialogue with an angry patient and family? A. Moczynski: “Anger is a natural response. Our first responsibility is to make sure that the patient, family and staff is safe. We do have an obligation to reach out as best we can.” |
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