title: An added dimension to the pediatric health maintenance visit: the spiritual history.
abstract: The initial pediatric health maintenance visit gives the nurse practitioner (NP) an opportunity to gather information about a family that can be used to devise an effective and culturally sensitive plan of care. NPs have a history of exploring spirituality as a segment of a family's culture to help children and their parents cope with an acute or chronic illness. However, spirituality should also be discussed with a family because it may affect their normal, everyday lives. Religious traditions, values, and ethical concerns may provide rich insight into a family's dynamic, which can increase an NP's understanding. The mnemonic B-E-L-I-E-F is used to guide NPs through a discussion of spirituality within a pediatric health care maintenance context. This framework, which incorporates an added dimension of spirituality into the health history, will further advance efforts to assist families in fostering optimal childhood growth and development during a routine health care maintenance visit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McEvoy
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002648:Child; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000379:methods*; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D029181:Spirituality