title: Creating healing environments.
abstract: In 2004 two organizations, the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, Washington, DC, and the Supportive Care Coalition: Pursuing Excellence in Palliative Care, Portland, OR, collaborated in an experiment seeking antidotes to the depersonalization of health care. Their "Hospital-Based Spirituality Initiative: Creating Healing Environments" was intended to achieve two objectives: First, to develop and test strategies that encourage clinical caregivers to attend to patients' spiritual concerns; and, second, to better understand the organizational values and infrastructure that support increasing the spiritual care that caregivers provide. The initiative was conducted in five faith-based hospitals and two secular hospitals. Evaluation of the data indicated that the initiative was success for patients and caregivers.
authors.affiliation: George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Christina M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Puchalski
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McSkimming
mesh_terms: D004219:District of Columbia; D006272:Health Facility Environment; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009922:Oregon; D015279:Organizational Culture; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000592:standards*; D010327:Pastoral Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D029181:Spirituality; D014481:United States