Prayers in the clinic: how pediatric physicians respond.
BACKGROUND
Physicians and researchers have recently paid increased attention to prayer in physician-patient interactions. Research focuses more on attitudinal questions about whether physicians and/or patients think prayer is relevant than on actual data about when and how prayer comes up in the clinic and how physicians respond. We focus on pediatric physicians to investigate: 1) how prayer enters clinical contexts and 2) how physicians respond.


METHODS
We examined in-depth interviews with 30 academic pediatricians and pediatric oncologists. All of these physicians were employed by the most highly ranked hospitals according to US News and World Report.


RESULTS
In close to 100% of cases when the subject of prayer came up in clinical contexts, it was patients and families who raised it. Patients and families mostly talked about prayer in response to a seriously ill or dying child. When it was raised, pediatric physicians responded to prayer by participating; accommodating but not participating; reframing; and directing families to other resources.


CONCLUSIONS
Physicians wanted to respect patients and families around the topic of prayer. They negotiated between patient/family requests, the specific situation, and their own comfort levels to respond in one of four ways. Their four responses allowed researchers to generate hypotheses about the independent variables that influence how pediatric physicians respond to prayer. Asking how prayer actually came up in clinical situations rather than how patients and/or physicians thought it should be raised, better informs ongoing conversations about the significance of prayer in physician-patient interactions.
Cadge
Wendy
W
Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02454, USA. wcadge@brandeis.edu
Ecklund
Elaine Howard
EH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016638:Critical Illness; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010372:Pediatrics; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012067:Religion; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012107:Research Design; D018401:Sample Size; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce