title: Doctors Who Integrate Spirituality and CAM in the Clinic: The Puerto Rican Case.
abstract: This article describes Puerto Rican physicians' personal and clinical utilization of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM), its effects, and use as they identified as either Spiritist, spiritual or religious. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 74 doctors in Puerto Rico. Major themes and relationships among them were charted using the qualitative data analysis program MAXQDA, open coding and grounded theory. Thirty-one doctors spoke of CAM and its use as related to their spiritual or religious perspectives. Spiritual or Spiritist doctors were more inclined than religious doctors to utilize CAM. Seeking closer relationships with patients was related to a spiritually oriented goal of healing (as distinct from curing) as a reason to recommend CAM.
authors: Federal Social Security System, 839 Calle Añasco, Suite 2, San Juan, PR, 00925, USA. jessesotoespinos@hotmail.com.
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Soto-Espinosa
authors: Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.|George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors: Joan D
authors: JD
authors: Koss-Chioino
mesh_terms: D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D010820:Physicians; D011647:Puerto Rico; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D029181:Spirituality
keywords: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM); Puerto Rican doctors; Religion; Spiritism; Spirituality