Welcome!
The purpose of this guide is to expose both prospective providers and current practitioners to resources that will help create an environment of cultural and religious humility and competency. America has always been called a melting pot, and accommodating everyone’s health needs and preferences can be extremely difficult. Regardless, health must be offered to everyone, including the groups of individuals who are highly involved in religion and spirituality or are even just spiritual but not religious. Because there is such a large spectrum of how religion and spirituality affect an individual’s life in this day and age, the providers’ understanding of this matter is crucial and cultural and religious competence must be present in order to assess the needs of these individuals and communities.
This guide provides resources which explain the importance of religion and spirituality on individual and community levels. The goal of this guide is to provide resources which can demonstrate how providers in both clinical and public health settings can help improve individual and community health outcomes by recognizing the role religion and spirituality can play in health.
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5 Most Common Religions in the US
The pitfalls of poor culturally competent care has many negative health and social consequences including lower-quality patient experience as well as increased risk of complications. To combat this, it is important to know the religious, cultural, and spiritual needs of the patient. Here, you can explore the top five major religions that can be found in the U.S. that are most commonly encountered in the healthcare setting. In this way, one can more fully understand the strategies that will move health providers and organizations into providing competent and empathetic care.
Working with Individuals
The premise of providers’ lack of exposure to religion and spirituality as well as their understanding on the importance of this subject in clinical settings has been established. Religion and spirituality certainly bolster and protect individuals against certain negative health outcomes as well as act to serve as a huge influence in life choices. Providers have also seen this empirical difference and acknowledge the implications. This section will give recommendations and examples to help with providers in a similar sort of situation.
Working with Communities
Public health officials must also be aware that the R/S communities engage in a multitude of practices and beliefs and be open to adjusting treatments for these cases. In this next section, the review will move on to how R/S communities are affected by R/S implications as well as what providers can do to improve patient care and quality among community groups.
