A Hospital Handbook on Multiculturalism and Religion: Practical Guidelines for Health Care Workers

by Neville A. Kirkwood

In our religiously pluralistic society, clergy, medical, and nursing staffs in modern hospitals are confronted with caring for people with varied beliefs and customs. Since the overall care of a patient, and not just the surgeries performed or medicines given, affect an individual's recovery, it is vitally important to be familiar with cultural and religious understandings and expectations around hygiene, pastoral care, autopsies, transfusions, and even the practices associated with death itself.



A Hospital Handbook for Multiculturalism and Religion is a succinct guide to the care of patients from a variety of faiths. The original version included Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Baha'i. In the revised edition Neville Kirkwood has added chapters on Taoism, Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Jainism. Each chapter examines not only the customs of adherents to various faith perspectives but also the significance of certain rites and attitudes, supplying health-care workers and chaplains with the information they need to provide the best care possible.

130 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[TJ]

A good refrence book for hospital chaplains that addresses how religions affects pt's lives and care in hospitals. Deals with issues that arise in hosptial stays.

[Amelia the Strange]

A good little handbook to have around. It is by no means meant to go into great detail with any religion but it does get the basics across.