Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory in Health Care

Worldview Analysis and Personal Inventory in Healthcare With the advancement in technology, the healthcare phenomenon has greatly changed with practitioners embracing recent trends in their practices. The perspective of care giving have changed its focus and concentrated more on healing, emotional health and better service.

Consequently, the Christian worldview on healthcare has significantly affected the scientific approach on medicine to an extent of scientist calling for more inclusion of its beliefs regarding human life (Shelly & Miller, 2006). This paper will look at the different aspects of the Christian worldview and other worldviews with respect to health care.

The Christian worldview strongly dictates that healthcare is not just the physical wellbeing, but also spiritual healing. According to Shelly and Miller (2006), Christian worldview stresses on the spiritual understanding of creation, which is a concept that cannot be explained by science. Similarly, the Christian perspective provides a clear distinction between right and wrong and what is ethical since it borrows all its ideology from God’s character. On the other hand, postmodern relativism completely disregards the aspect of ethics (what is right and wrong). The postmodern relativism is a way of thinking that assumes the reality and provides the subjective opinion aspect (no truth to be discovered in an individual or society) (Grand Canyon University, 2019).

The Christian worldview includes more than the scientific health. In this aspect, there is no limitations science God is the healer, thus through prayers, any disease can be healed (Shelly & Miller, 2006). On the other hand, the postmodern approach is guided by evidence based practices (Shelly & Miller, 2006). Finally, Christian worldview is God based with existence of health, wholeness, peace and prosperity, while postmodern perspective is that there is balanced energy, wholeness, and harmonization with nature (Shelly & Miller, 2006).

Scientism Modern medicine has greatly evolved. It is not just but also a science. Subsequently, the art is surrounded by many worldview controversies that positively or negatively affect it.

However, looking at medicine in the spiritual perspective, one is able to relate health care and human existence with God, therefore, understanding the importance of life and why it is worth saving. One of these controversial philosophies against Christianity is scientism. Scientism can be described as a self-controverting philosophy that stresses on only one way to accumulate knowledge about the world, which is science (Grand Canyon University, 2019). The philosophy completely disregards the Christian worldview with beliefs that is something cannot be scientifically proven it does not exist. According to Reid (2018), scientism completely takes advantage of scientific research methods and only focuses on personal achievements rather than the important aspect of science. In the medical perspective, scientism distracts educators from the aspects of educational contents of learning towards discussing personal achievements and validation of these achievements (Reid, 2018). However, modern research, especially Christian based, have argued against scientism due to its biasness.

According to Grand Canyon University (2019) scientism fails its own test since its thesis cannot be scientifically evidenced. Primarily, scientism can be regarded as just a philosophical statement with no scientific basis or limitations unlike science, which has limitations to what it can prove (Grand Canyon University, 2019). Similarly, according to According to Grand Canyon University (2019) science cannot dictate how people should act in the moral perspective.

In his study, Reid (2018) discusses the term “scientism” as a biased philosophy. Natural science cannot capture the moral and ethical part of medicine. Additionally, the ethical and moral choices associated with medical practices cannot be quantified through scientific investigations

contrary to scientism beliefs (Reid, 2018). Therefore, the focus on spiritual beliefs and values on healthcare and the world existence should be taken into consideration.

Worldview and Personal Perspective Modern medical practitioners have embraced the spiritual view of medicine. This has seen the focus divert from the caring or service aspect to technological and curing model (Puchalski, 2001). Spirituality coupled with scientific approaches has great influence on world and personal perspectives on various worlds’ phenomenon. A research by Shah et al. (2018) suggests the relationship between healthcare profession and spiritual or religious beliefs and the need for better understanding of their applicability. To best understand worldview; spiritual, personal and scientific perspectives need to play hand in hand. However, personal perspective is influenced by the other two.

One aspect to understand is what ultimate reality means. In my personal view, ultimate reality describes the existence of all things without the influence of man. Specifically, it means supreme existence of nature through the influence of a supreme being. Christians believe that God is the creator of realty and has control to manipulate its existence. Specifically, in Christian worldview, God is the eternal and existed before the existence of the universe, and He is “otherly,” (Sire, 2009). Additionally, there is the element of nature of the universe.

People have different believes on the nature of the world. From my perspective, the universe exists as a result of a supreme intervention. In the scientific field, the universe is at least 13 billion years old as explained in the Big Bang theory. Scientists describe it as a combination of space, time and their contents such as the galaxies and stars. However, according to Christian worldview, God created the universe in its entirety. According to Sire (2009), the universe is orderly and it was not programmed rather created for a purpose. Then God create humans with a

purpose of taking care of the universe. Consequently, humans’ decisions and actions are significant and can positively or negatively impact the world (Sire, 2009). Therefore, the other element to consider is what a human being is.

In the scientific perspective, humans are living organisms that came into existence through evolution. However, in my perspective, human beings exist for a purpose and as a result of a supreme existence. In a religious perspective, god created humans in His own image to fill the world that he created and portray his character. Similarly, God values human existence, which is why despite breaking his commandments, God found a way to save man through sacrificing his so, as explained in the New Testament. It is therefore the purpose of human beings to serve God and follow his commands to avoid eternal domination (Sire, 2009). Another important aspect in understanding worldview is knowledge.

Knowledge can be defined as skills and facts acquired through practical experiences or education and personal adventures. It is accumulated gradually and helps people understand the world, and develop mechanisms of existence and handling daily challenges. However, the Christian worldview associates knowledge with humans’ understanding of God’s existence and the purpose of their existence (Sire, 2009). Additionally, it is important to note that knowledge can be acquired from God and scientific means (Grand Canyon University, 2019). Sire (2009) portrays God as all knowing and humans gain knowledge from Him through his revelations and the Bible. Subsequently, there is the aspect of ethics basis.

In my perspective, ethics can be best based on religious beliefs where the definition of what is good and bad is extensive. Religion or faith is a significant base to derive human morals and ethical behaviors. As a Christian, the basis of ethics is very clear since they are derived from God’s character. Specifically, there is a “clear line” between right and wrong, good and bad,

which defines morality and immorality. According to Sire (2009), God is holy, and this is a clear standard to measure moral judgments among humans. I therefore strongly believe that religion forms best platform for ethics. Finally, the other important aspect is the purpose of one’s existence.

I strongly believe that human existence is not by accident. I believe that we were all created for a specific purpose, which is different depending on one’s beliefs and religion. From the bible, human beings were created with the purpose of filling the earth, taking care of other creations and pleasing their creator. This is why the life of a person is precious and in Christianity, taking the life of a person is breaking God’s commandment. Similarly, in the world perspective, life is important, thus killing or murder is a crime and is severely punished.

In conclusion, understanding any worldview, one needs to comprehend the above discussed aspects. Each aspect carries a deeper meaning with explanations from all worldviews, be it religious or scientific. It is important to note that the Christian worldview plays a significant role in all these aspects, making it the best “area of interest”.

References Egan, R. (2018). Spirituality in Aotearoa, New Zealand: Personal Reflections from a Spirituality in Health Care Researcher. Journal of Pain and Symptoms management, 12, 331-337.

Grand Canyon University (2019). Foundational Issues in Christian Spirituality and Ethics.

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Puchalski, C. M. (2001). The Role of Spirituality in Health Care. Bumc Proceedings, 14, 352357.

Reid, L. (2018). Scientism in Medical Education and the Improvement of Medical Care: Opioids, Competencies, and Social Accountability. Health care Anal, 26(2), 155-170.

Shah, S. et al. (2018). A Survey to Explore Health Care Staff Perceptions of Spirituality and Spiritual Care Working in a Single District Health Area in New Zealand. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 22, 1-9.

Shelly, J. A., & Miller, A. B. (2006). Called to care: A Christian worldview for nursing.

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Sire, J. W. (2009). The Universe Next Door. Westmont, Illinois :InterVarsity Press.