Holistic Care: A Comparison

Written by Noah Humphrey

Edited by Lucy Gilchrist, Meghanlata Gupta, Eva Magyar, and Gabrielle Sevillano

Acknowledgments: With contributions from the Religious Studies Department of Whittier College, the Orthogonian Society, and my Ionian Big Connie Morales." With passion from Davon "Rico" Spillers (Long Live Rico!!!) when you see my name you'll know what kind of spirit is behind me.  His soul is off this earth but I carry his passion and love for those around him in my pursuit of God and my drive for academic excellence. I got a lot of angels on my back, so I'll never falter in terms of rising above. This is just the beginning!"

To quote from my supplemental essay for this project, I will be relying on the following definition I have created: Holistic health is the use of the advancements within the medical field and spirituality to provide a way for people to develop new talents and skills to benefit themselves and the science around them. Along with that, the development of compassion and passion are components of holistic care as you use these traits to seek to heal the whole person rather than a certain area. With that said, my project deals with healthcare professionals from a multitude of areas, primarily Los Angeles and the Whittier area, due to health risks. As I was perusing through my list of possible candidates for my project, there were 5-7 that were strongly fit for this project of which I interviewed. I needed to make sure that this project was not mishandled and that the identities of the interviewees in the research were protected. This is why I gave the interviewees aliases, such as Nutritionist A or Healthcare Practitioners.

With many hours of research going into this project along with a substantial number of citations, I additionally used scholarly essays and other research articles to supplement my claims in this work. The question that I wanted to answer is how variations of holistic care are found and utilized amongst the pool of interviewees. Along with surmised knowledge from the annotated citations and peer research from my independent study course, I wanted to explore how various sets of holistic methods pertain to the improvement of one's care. These various questions are synthesized towards finding the variables that affect how a healthcare practitioner helps their patient. This means that having expertise in the field along with meditation or spiritual preparations can aid a practitioner before and/or after seeing their patients. Overall, this study will be of benefit to others to improve their holistic care along with a possibility of extensive research sessions being led throughout the completion of the project. I hope to use this research with various undergrad and graduate work with the consent of interviewees.

When discussing my questions, I want to observe how the practitioner uses aspects of holistic care in their daily practice. I want to investigate whether health practitioners use practice-oriented holistic elements or some type of spirituality or psychology to aid their patients. The simulation plus the ideals of technological and holistic works within nursing programs can help better their care with patients (Cohen, Boni 2018). Simulation-based learning helps draw more knowledge from these active situations into play, which makes it more apparent that the questionnaire stimulates over time better responses with these simulations and case scenarios. For a healthcare practitioner to take time and see where their application and treatment administration for the patient can correlate along the lines of holistic care further these examples of case scenarios (Cohen, Boni 2018). When it comes to the limited body of knowledge on holistic nursing simulation, this research project may provide more answers, but this will not be the end-all. I hope that these results can lead to more studies to further holistic capabilities.

Some scenarios will not work as well or offer that much feedback, but I wish to use these questions to view how healthcare practitioners from all backgrounds can be geared towards a similar approach. Although these healthcare practitioners may have biases when it comes to different questions, this will still affect the applied techniques and holistic elements. This information will be useful to see how healthcare practitioners can find it helpful to separate themselves from their beliefs to help patients. During my research, I found some conundrums when I reached a certain point. As healthcare professionals from different backgrounds may include different medicines and other disciplines for their praxis, it is important to consider that faith can be synthesized in their work or everyday life. Furthermore, the longitudinal approach that I wish for this project to have would not be obtained from my questions. This is why I limited my study’s reach. The healthcare practitioner can use these questions to perfect their own techniques, hence becoming more knowledgeable in their craft. As medicine and other developmental techniques are tried and perfected through using body, mind, and soul, the use of holistic care can help the patients and address needs that are usually left unexplored.

By understanding how ideals like translational medicine are used, past research can be successfully applied to future advancements in the biomedical field. Integrating this treatment with the proper care of model animals helps with both local and national changes in the field of medicine (Friese 2013). The medical community has sought to improve the ability of their practitioners to use a holistic approach for the benefit of their patients. It is urgent for this project to aid other similar research efforts regarding holistic care. For my interview with Nutritionist A, there was a glut of information to process regarding ideas of religious freedom and health complications. Nutritionist A mentioned how health practitioners’ care of patients can vary during certain religious holidays like Lent or Ramadan. Nutritionist A stresses that the spiritual component should be maintained as long as they take precautions with their health. Deadly levels of stress, vitamin deficiency, and other factors can contribute to the development of serious illnesses such as diabetes. Without proper care, these issues may be exacerbated by certain religious practices, such as restricting oneself from eating particular foods for religious reasons, and become fatal. Holistic health methods vary from counseling to the consumption of herbs in order to calm one’s soul and achieve aesthetic balance within the body.

While there are positives to holistic care, one must consider the possibility that these practices may also bring harm to the body, such as muscle weakness, vitamin deficiency, and other forms of malnutrition. Nutritionist A mentions that they have seen many religious and devoted worshippers overcome health obstacles to obtain their spiritual power as well as to show their devotion. From a non-Western perspective, this can enhance how one sees the addition, subtraction, and other alleviations or deviations from certain religious events to help the patient but also to provide flexibility in treatment. Personalizing the effects of holistic care in terms of faith and physical effort can work as long as positivity and compassion are maintained. Overall, the work needed to perform these methods of healing can relate to Nutritionist A’s drive to help better their patients. They seek to surround themselves in an expansive body of culture and practices but want to remain in practical dimensions where they can express their own medical beliefs through their defined and refined practices, praxis, and training.

Ideally, Nutritionist A wants to keep the patient healthy using modern medical advancements. The practitioner needs to be aware of the advancements but to keep a personal connection that will benefit and help towards positive and reinforcing praxis and methods to keep the patient healthy. They resolved to become a nutritionist because they wanted to use their studies and treatment methods to help others. With the urge to better their care and to keep their license, Nutritionist A seeks lifetime improvement through study and how they relay information about holistic care. Bochanski, in “Professing Faith, Professing Medicine: Physicians and the Call to Evangelize,”' reviews the Hippocratic Oath, which traditionally establishes medicine as a career or vocation based on the professing of an oath regarding personal and public behavior (Bochanski 2014). In correlation with Bochanski, Nutritionist A takes a similar oath with working to better the patient through their praxis, unconsciously or purposely using holistic methodologies (such as prayer, meditation, and affirmations). Catholic physicians and possibly Catholic nutritionists may have commitments to enhance their definition of care. Their commitments, such as Easter and Lent, could affect their practice in terms of the restrictions they may place on their bodies and spiritual wellbeing (Bochanski 2014).

Nutritionist A urged that health must be preserved but that faith is also part of the patient. Although they advise following the health guidelines they prescribe, faith can break through their metaphorical layers. This means that faith at times may overlay or even bypass the physical and moral codes that a nutritionist may set down. Although this paper addresses medical students, it can also be relevant to general practitioners who are practicing their faith like Nutritionist A and their holistic take on ritual practices. As Bochanski writes, while some Catholic physicians spread the message and values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their practice, their proselytizing can also be seen as a deterrent for those who may not have the same beliefs(Bochanski 2014). By concluding that all Catholic physicians are trained but have a practice of holistic care within them, Bochanski and Nutritionist A exemplify how holistic care or some spiritual work exists within the practice of healing and restoring others (Bochanski 2014). Seeking counsel to help their mind, body, and soul is what both Catholic physicians who took the Hippocratic Oath and Nutritionist A have in common in terms of a medical perspective.

It begins to make sense that the medical perspective is such a diverse area to explore. I could tell that their idea of holistic care is holistically static, still but moving in different forms, when it comes to religious obligations. In their “Palliative Care: A Holistic Discipline,” Greer and Joseph help elucidate how the mind and body are interwoven with other attributes that become clearer as more contact is made with the patient (Greer, Joseph 2016). Similarly, Nutritionist A is concerned with life-threatening actions that patients with severe medical issues may take due to their religious beliefs, but they can only give them suggestions. Besides, psychological factors have received insufficient attention within medicine. As Greer and Joseph, note, the biomedical model does not take a holistic approach to medical care.

Addressing serious issues such as those within palliative care (medicine for those with severe illnesses) must be done through more serious forms of approved medical care. Arising from five report examples from clinical practice in a hospice, Greer’s research suggests that palliative care can produce marked medical and psychological improvement in terminally ill patients (Greer, Joseph 2016). Regarding methods of relieving grief among the primary carers of terminally ill patients, Greer suggests in his discussion that randomized controlled studies are required to confirm these clinical findings (Greer, Joseph 2016). Finding the right psychological therapy that can alleviate the most stress among the terminally ill varies from patient to patient. Nutritionist A could prescribe other ways to alleviate pain or add nutrition, but outside resources will suffice in the moral/ethical problems such as taking religious action or granting assisted suicide (Greer, Joseph 2016). Greer’s article supports my thesis that the success of medical practice is largely based on the holistic setting or proper preparation of the mind, body, and soul. This can be both a realization and an important marker to how the summation of holistic care can be offered to others.

Athletic Trainer A believes that healthcare interest, in general, desires to have compassion. They believe that the mind has a huge part in it as they say that “physical touch… kind of just progresses them a little bit more… the physical touch lets someone know that they’re there.” The interviewee believes that a holistic approach does play a role in treatment and that healthcare professionals must understand all parts of the mind, body, and soul to be a successful healthcare practitioner and to do their job efficiently. Technology helps with new advancements, therapeutic modalities, and even laser treatment. Athletic Trainer A believe it does affect them and the role that it plays makes the interviewee see that it is a major part. In their study  “An Evidence-Based Review on Wound Healing Herbal Remedies From Reports of Traditional Persian Medicine,” Hosseinkhani and other researchers review new research on wound-healing agents as a developing area in biomedical sciences, specifically traditional Persian medicine (Hosseinkhani 2017). With this as one of the holistic systems providing valuable information on natural remedies, Persian medicine is a potential technologicaladvancement that might be applicable to Athletic Trainer A’s keen interest in biomedical advancement and bodily movements in the kinesiological study.

During the project, they collected evidence for wound-healing medicines from traditional Persian medicine sources. These included using five main pharmaceutical manuscripts and other contemporary reports to gain a deeper understanding of the medicinal components. Their underlying mechanisms for this study were documented and discussed along with 65 identified herbs used in Persian medicine for their wound-healing properties relating to anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and wound-healing activities (Hosseinkhani 2017). Finding that 40 herbs possessed one quality and 10 filtered plants contained all of those qualities, it can be assumed that they could be used within the field of the Athletic Trainer A (Hosseinkhani 2017). It can also be used to help improve the athletes they work with once clinical research has been done and viable products for Vivo have been manufactured (Hosseinkhani 2017). With the combination of holistic medicine, praxis, and technological advancements, Athletic Trainer A makes a valid point with their usage of newer technology. Yet amongst the medical community, the usage of Persian traditional herbs alongside different medical and healthcare cultures may potentially lead to herbalism’s advancement within the biomedical field.

Practitioners usually keep spirituality separate from their treatment unless the patient brings it up, as they believe it can cross a line unless the patient themselves facilitates it. However, Athletic Trainer A believes that faith and spirituality go hand in hand and has occasionally unseen effects on their own practice. Caqueo-Urízar’s “Caregiver's quality of life and its positive impact on symptomatology and quality of life of patients with schizophrenia” looks at how the caregiver’s quality of life (QoL) experienced by patients with schizophrenia has been recognized (Caqueo-Urizar 2017). Few studies have assessed the relationship between the caregivers’ QoL and patients’ QoL, yet this study included over 253 stabilized outpatients with schizophrenia and their caregivers from 3 Mental Health Services in Bolivia (N = 83), Chile (N = 85) and Peru (N = 85) (Caqueo-Urizar 2017). With these numbers, along with what the Athletic Trainer surveys, it can be given that the research concerning these patients can be compared to how the Athletic Trainer A oversees their research and works to better their patients (athletes) in their clinics.

Using two specific QoL questionnaires for caregivers and patients as well as clinical data assessed using structural equation modeling (SEM), these researchers found that caregivers' QoL may have an indirect effect on patients’ QoL mediated by their influence on the severity of psychotic symptoms (Caqueo-Urizar 2017). Athletic Trainer A’s encouragement and enthusiasm for improving health in their athletes is also demonstrated by other trainers. In their research, Caqueo-Urizar found that the improvement of the caregiver’s QoL may have a direct impact on the psychotic symptoms of patients and indirectly on the patient’s QoL, confirming the need for ongoing family interventions in these regions (Caqueo-Urizar 2017). Also, it is related to how there can be a need for Athletic Trainer A to apply passion to their care. Research study results found that a holistic perspective has a profound effect on treatment performances. Athletic Trainer A will continually seek to improve their athlete's condition while they add more to their experience as they deal with other holistic issues beyond the physical and mental stresses the athletes may endure. As holistic care takes place, its need in the healthcare system and the U.S is important. In mental health facilities, physical training centers, gyms, and other areas that function with sports psychology, more shaping is needed for holistic care within the research. Kinesiology or other types of bodily movement/holistic care can be the future, shaping the need for training healthcare practitioners to handle these issues.

Athletic Trainer A also believes that faith changes the approach one uses to promote overall holistic health but not their approach towards therapies and rehabs. Faith-related days and events play a major role in modifications to the bodies of believers, such as nutrition, physical health, and spiritual customs. Certified athletic trainers incorporate muscle movement, applications, theories, and medical concepts into their field of involvement. A 4-year degree in KNS/Athletic training, 2 years in grad school, and a standard exam (OC) is usually needed to be certified for athletic training work. Lastly, Athletic Trainer A said that “outside of your ability to care for someone is your characteristics, like your time management, your discipline, and your work ethic.”. Essentially, they advocated being diligent, gaining trust, and having the drive to help patients. Athletic Trainer A’s statements compare with Lambert’s and his cohorts, “Changes in factors influencing doctors’ career choices between one and five years after graduation: questionnaire surveys of UK doctors” regarding how they discuss how the healthcare professional's passion changed over time (Lambert 2016).

As this report was done via questionnaire survey by post and email to study changes in factors influencing United Kingdom doctors’ career specialty choices, it still has major ramifications for Athletic Trainer A’s suggestions. A staggering 10,473 doctors that replied to the surveys did so both one and five years after graduating from all UK medical schools between 1993 and 2008, which makes this sample very comprehensive (Lambert 2016). Analysis of the data found that twelve factors influenced the doctors’ choice of future specialty. The researchers found that enthusiasm for and commitment to their specialty was the greatest influence on career choice at year 1 (66%) and year 5 (74%) (Lamber 2016). Although from another country, Athletic Trainer A’s statements are proven correct through this study. With a difference between Year 1 to Year 5 and the use of emotions as a medium, the dire need for doctors to have these qualities early correlates with their drive to continue their profession in later years. There was an increase in the importance of promotion/career prospects, self-appraisal of one's skills, student experience of subject and enthusiasm/commitment among more recent cohorts compared with older cohorts (Lambert 2016). This shows that over time as the system started to improve, the holistic praxis and the overall health of the athletic trainer also improved. Studying phenomenological approaches and qualitative research on lived experiences can help doctors learn more about themselves, as well as what to do in other situations involving emotional and mental imbalances in their patients. Overall, this can mean that having a holistic praxis within the research to develop doctors so that they can help increase interest and focus for these practitioners of medicine. This also indicates that Athletic Trainer A was correct in their assumptions.

Their definition of holistic care includes the physical, mental, social, spiritual, and psychological: knowing when you have to reference different methods and acknowledging the areas that a person is crossing towards. Cohen's "A Proposal to Address NFL Club Doctors' Conflicts of Interest and to Promote Player Trust" details how to ensure that National Football League (NFL) players receive healthcare they can trust from providers who are as free from conflicts of interest as is realistically possible (Cohen 2016). With the demonstrations that the Athletic trainers use within their practice, it would take a lot of pressure off of the players. For the league, players have a team doctor, can consult with their managers about health-related decisions, and are able to seek out outside specialists to better their health. These proposals would bring less strain and complications to athletic trainers as they don’t have to take such a major role in outside kinesiological work and applying communicative skills beyond their job expertise. While players and clubs share an interest in player health, this structure can force the club doctors to have an obligation to the player and the club making difficult judgments towards both players and trusted medical staff (Cohen 2016).

Athletic trainer A could also support a level of holistic care as they help athletes and clients, regardless of professional-level or bodily concerns. With their experience with college athletes, Athletic Trainer A wants to maintain a balance of care and neutrality with how they treat certain athletes. If the interviewee were to pursue NFL athletic trainer or sports medicine work, then this may support these matters. Cohen also falls in line with what Athletic Trainer A has mentioned, as they too proposed resolving the problem of dual loyalty by largely severing the club doctor's ties with the club and refashioning that role into one of singular loyalty to the player-patient (Cohen 2016). With a Players' Medical Staff (exclusively loyal to the player) and the Club Evaluation Doctor (exclusively loyal to the club), there could be more ways for holistic care to be restricted and expressed (Cohen 2016). As the healthcare professional, they may have more or less involvement with different players based on their importance to the team, injury time, attitude, and the complications arising from certain treatments. This helps to explain the broad ethical principles, a reference to health standards, and applies a holistic approach that may be definitive for Athletic Trainer A to help others. This helps with healthcare professional efficiency and their appliance with their holistic care and/or praxis within their various fields of interest and study.

Chiropractor A believes that the mind is very powerful and that for a patient, their mental-emotional work must be observed. They believe that a holistic lifestyle benefits their practice, as it brings them closer to the scope of the body, the attributes of the person, and their various activities. Mediation, water drinking, exercise are examples they want to utilize to improve overall treatment results. They believe that future advancements will help healthcare, as there are always new things coming out such as with their computer-guided practice, which is less invasive and applies the technological advancements needed to help the patient. In Andre Singleton’s “ ‘Your Faith Has Made You Well’: The Role of Storytelling in the Experience of Miraculous Healing,” they seek more of an understanding of the healing within Catholic and Christian churches and analytically assess the overlooked social experience and healing potential of retelling the miracle stories (Singleton 2001). Unlike the technology they have today, they had a paper to record and it was lost easily. With digital restoration and closer studies to envision the mark of the healing, the story of divine figures can be given its proper oral renunciation and the healing stories will be highlighted.

How Singleton went through several oral stories is similar to how a doctor goes through different methods to find the solution. With Chiropractor A and their healthcare journey, it can be given cultural meanings as their variety of patients deepen their faith and morality. Unlike text that can be misinterpreted and suppress others via the depiction of characters who appear in a miraculous healing story, Chiropractor A tests materials and records their information in a way that can be held through generations and can be transferred into different frames (Singleton 2001). With this preservation of history and the idea that the miracle may not be similar but the healing is still in effect, the practice of healthcare and understanding divinity would not widen a gap. It would become a way in which more knowledge can be filtered through religious and kinesiological, biological, and/or other scientific means. Chiropractor A does not mention themselves being on the same level of God but describes themself as relying upon the spirit and the divine to aid them with their work to benefit the patient.

They maintain that they will do all they can to give the patient a place to be cared for, along with devising new methods through continual research to help future patients with surface-level musculoskeletal issues and/or deeper muscle/holistic issues. Ideally, the healing story mixed with the additions of chiropractic research can show that even with the gap in technology, the spiritual component is still present and allows those to be honored by their accordance withtheir higher power and/or by faith (Singleton 2001). Overall, Singleton’s study includes the notion that praying for healing can also be reflective of a holistic view and that divinity aligns with the knowledge of the earth itself can help formulate theories about the divine and supernatural (Singleton 2001). Chiropractic A has less aggressive technology and treatment methods that are better than the manual approach usually taken by other chiropractors. These methods are used in order to help a variety of patients that are unable to take the strain of a hands on session to their spine or their skeletal system as a whole. Chiropractor A believes that we are spiritual beings and that energy guiding comes into play depending on how their patients express spiritual energy, particularly energy deficiencies or disruptions. They also believe that faith is a crucial part of treatment and that it comforts the spiritual within the being of the person.

They want to look at the spiritual being and use it to influence the spiritual mindset. Mental, emotional, biological, chemical, and other factors are still incorporated into treatment, but they additionally focus on strong faith as a vital element to the treatment plan. Chiropractor A mentions that the idea of Lent can give more of an initiative for their patients. As the care may change due to church obligations, it is their faith that may help improve or hamper their care. No matter a patient’s belief system, it will not affect their care in Chiropractic A’s office. The breathing method and the other ideas that are given to how they are going to be seen, using a great positive mental approach. According to Thomas J. Csordas’ “Morality as a Cultural System,” the anthropological study of morality is connectivity programmed, which can be referenced to Chiropractic A’s listing on strength (Csordas 2013). Csordas addresses how morality as a system can thrive as being intellectually beneficial to the field of study. It can be referenced with how holistic care can go beyond self-care and bring both the patient and the healthcare practitioner to a place that will recognize both their needs and problems with their resources and methods.

If mistreatment is done to the patient and the practitioner intentionally knows that is malpractice and considered evil intent. What is seen with the evil in Csordas can be summarized here as a morality problem: How can we negate evil in the practitioning of holistic care? (Csordas 2013). How evil is analyzed is based on Csordas examining anthropological literature on the source of “evil.” By being more observant of how evil and other holistic methods can be taken advantage of, Chiropractor A must allow patients to choose their own path in receiving care regardless of the healthcare systems and processes they are going to. The problems outside of the patient are not for Chiropractor A to deal with, so they separate their personal life from their practice by utilizing meditation, being present for the patient, preparing to fight through possible fatigue, and not being a negative influence. After 32-33 years of chiropractic work, they do physical fitness to relieve themselves of the stress of taking care of the patients and to stay energized. Chiropractic A states that a healthcare professional (from their practice, as they can’t speak from those who practice different disciplines) needs a lot of training and post-work to keep up. They said for them it requires a lot of yearly work, including exams, college courses, certifications, and license renewals. The education is continually used for their profession, so they are constantly examined for their qualifications. A healthcare professional must have empathy, communication skills, and the knowledge to best assist their patient. Kimberly McClanahan’s article “Holistic health: does it really include mental health?” discusses how holistic health (the incorporation of mind and body as equally important and unified components of health) is a concept that has been used for over 30 years (McClanahan 2006). This utilization of the mind-body and spirit is what Chiropractor A attempts within their practice. Yet McClanahan states that in the U.S., mental health is not seen as conceptually integral to physical health. Thus, holistic health cannot be realized until the historical concept of mind-body dualism addresses mental health as a component (McClanahan 2006).

Chiropractic A makes it their duty to ensure they are compassionate, passionate, and trustworthy when concerned with their patient’s welfare. Chiropractic A seeks to understand and view within a frame of holistic elements treatments that could help patients with physical and mental impairments. As Mcclanahan referenced in her article, that could limit the potential of holistic medicine, but could also work in Chiropractors A’s favor. This can open the door to more analysis of opportunities where holistic medicine can be applied, such as with the adjusting machines that Chiropractic A uses. Essentially, McClanahan saw that their research viewed mental and physical health as separate entities, concluding that the U.S. generally incorporates the tenets of holistic health in its view of the mental and physical health of its citizens (McClanahan 2006). Chiropractic A’s constant exposure to new scholarship and her material being expanded outlines a network that increases the spread of knowledge to those in and outside of her field, contributing to the overall mission of improving patient health via analysis of their energies, physical issues, and mental issues.

It is evident that the world must continue to revise its practices in medical care. On  another note, whether a practitioner should show discretion when handling mental and physical health while performing holistic medicine is a question I will answer later on in this paper. Chiropractic A works around needing trustful, caring, and educated healthcare workers to perform their duties. Chiropractor A views holistic care as a way of seeing a patient in multiple parts, as not just a “headache person” coming in but as a person who may have more underlying issues in their life. Julia Thiesbonenkamp-Maag’s “‘I Am Here Not to Repair but See the Person as a Whole’: Pastoral Care Work in German Hospitals” focuses on the contributions and tests of chaplains performing pastoral care in German hospitals (Thiesbonenkamp-Maag 2017). The team that researched these results as part of a holistic approach included specialists from different veins of medicine. The research team consisted of two theologians (Fabian Kliesch, Thorsten Moos), one biologist specializing in medical ethics (Simone Ehm), and one medical anthropologist (Thiesbonenkamp-Maag 2017). This can be referenced back with the “headache person” as this is not just one person but a team using their skills and talents directed at one area of study and research proposal. Furthermore, the study is part of an ongoing research project of the Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Heidelberg that involves conducting expert interviews with hospital chaplains and carrying out participant observation in different hospitals (Thiesbonenkamp-Maag 2017).

The use of the chaplains and a hospital involves the intermingling of faith, medicine, and religion in a multidisciplinary fashion. Although Chiropractic A didn’t stress all of these ideas, it is intriguing that from the article I mentioned previously, they found that hospital chaplains relate to patients, their kin, and to hospital staff in a manner that is informed by an ethos of care (Thiesbonenkamp-Maag 2017). Overall, this study of care comes from a medical and spiritual approach, with the results showing that chaplains recognize both the spiritual needs of people and the necessity of care. Similar to Chiropractor A, Thiesbonenkamp-Maag reviews everything about their focus (patients, research subjects, etc.) to further the prospective care of the patient, the help they provide, and any reevaluations of successful and unsuccessful treatment methods (Thiesbonenkamp-Maag 2017). Yet Chiropractic A believes that it is essential to get the best health to succeed in health and wellness which is through the integrative work. Conclusively, this expression of holistic care, no matter what practice gives hope and can inspire more caring practitioners and self-assessing patients.

Indigenous Healer A had a very unique, spiritual view of their career path, saying that it wasn’t their choice and that they went on a decades-long soul journey, from quitting their corporate executive job at a million-dollar company to their current career as a spiritual guide. They were told of their ideas and found that they were able to locate pain on people's bodies via placing hands on them. Indigenous Healer A was not aware of their true power and moved back to Hawai’i to devote themself to ancestral practices. The story of Indigenous Healer A is immense and demonstrates their great capacity and love for spiritual guidance, development, and growth. Their present place of spirituality, believing that the mind can help with alleviating pain, serves as an example of how physical, mental, and spiritual pain are connected to emotions that stem from the vessel we live in.

To Indigenous Healer A, the body has memory and it is through their expertise that they are able to connect with people. Their patients may have physical health issues, but they also examine naturopaths. Callahan’s "Fatalism, the Self, Intentionality, and Signs of Ill Portent in Quintana Roo, Mexico” discusses that Mayans in the Yucatán Peninsula believe in predetermination (Callahan 2017). Similar to how Indigenous Healer A sees the body as the memory, Mayan fatalism is expressed through the concept of tamax chi’—a type of omen that speaks of impending suffering, usually of a terminal nature, facing a close family member (Callahan 2017). As more information is received via regional analysis, a holistic view can see beyond the physical to how spirituality plays a role in changing energy and emotional levels.

Callahan’s research showed that while life is difficult, tamax chi’ offers comfort in light of the chi not having the direct answer to human suffering and turmoil in one’s lifetime (Callahan 2017). Along with practitioners and how they utilize easily to battle with issues that the patients and family go through in situations through fatal injuries and may confront their praxis and belief system on how to deal with this. Indigenous Healer A knows that the mind stores emotional memories and can also see how others outside of its own consciousness experience death and other emotions to find some ease and comfort in situations going forward (Callahan 2017). Tamax chi’ offers Mayans a sense of peace to depart from the physical and trust in the unknown, that which is determined not by humans but by the bigger spiritual energy of the divine. The peace that can be seen through tamax chi’ can be how the holistic essence of a practitioner observes energy as influential. Tamax chi’ involves a holistic essence that only a practitioner or an observer of themedicine could apply, roughly analogous to Indigenous Healer A learning through the parts of the patient’s ancestors and using that to rejoin themselves back to their right flow of energy. They believe that every person they see is a reflection of their life they are helping themselves through. The work this person does and before this interview they had finished an interview with a woman who needed healing work in Slovakia and to the detriment of that spirit. Indigenous Healer A believes that their experience and spiritual journey made them to be a great leader in holistic health and to sense the effect of what happens to those around him. They are also coming to understand that they are “a bridge towards the spiritual and the science.” They see the aspect of the body as a machine and with holistic healing sees how they work on the emotional and physical at the same time to improve these points along with this.

Indigenous Healer A says that as science can see the broken bone  spirituality can feel it. They see that spirituality and science needs to be used together. Every day they use spirituality to help soothe pain and other negative emotions, believing that we feel generational pain through characteristics, behaviors, and emotions passed down from our ancestors. They believe alcoholism, deafness, and other behaviors are stored in DNA and thus that physical and behavioral change is of vital importance to healing. Martin Rovers’ “Conclusion: Issues of Touch: An Overall View and Integration” deals with how touch integrates within our cultural systems and medical field (Rovers 2017). The application of touch for Indigenous A to enact healing is for themselves or the means of the patient, allowing for touch to remain as a compartment of trust and securing relationships (Rovers 2017). Indigenous Healer A sets a connection with their patient to deepen the spiritual journey, to see how the patients are doing holistically, and to enhance reception to the energy given before, during, or after the treatment. Rovers reviews whether touch, whether in the physical or spiritual realm, can be made a tool for the integration of meaningful conversations (Rovers 2017). Indigenous Healer A has seen generational pain and, having experienced this pain themselves, recognizes that purging negative and stressful emotions helps to heal the body. The expansion of the knowledge of touch can potentially alleviate and transcend methods of spiritual therapy and provide information to soulful experienced healthcare practitioners.

According to Indigenous Healer A, teaching emotions can help reset synoptic settings by creating new bonds within the brain itself, thus breaking other negative patterns within the body. For all patients, there needs to be a level of faith knowing that the practitioner will be successful in their treatment of them. There needs to be usage and trust towards patients that have experienced abuse in the past and that permits themselves to realize where the trauma is coming from. It will help them review their spiritual self and to trust their body with the healthcare practitioner through setting boundaries and true care for the health of the patient. Indigenous Healer stated in the interview that they don’t heal but take a life tour where that ultimately healing entails the patient opening up and allowing themselves to change from within. To Indigenous Healer A, God has different means of influence, which they refer to as universal consciousness. Our willingness to connect with spirituality can help tap into the power of prayer and place us in a better role for holistic care. Being spiritual or knowledgeable of spirituality gives us the choice of understanding what energy, or to Indigenous Healer A, the life they want to hold the energy to.

Indigenous Healer A discusses quantum physics with the belief that the utilization of energy helps with how the world is envisioned and the expression of energy to control the emotions within. They also believe that cellular memory has an effect on religious ceremonies; for instance, they hold that early Christian ceremonies are ingrained within those who originated from Europe. The information that is genetically buried can be further scoped and viewed through nature, seasons of change, phases of the moon, and other types of psyche introducing such mental principles like internal fear (i.e seeing the snake as the Devil). Religious ceremonies, in Indigneous Healer A’s view, are entwined in our DNA, and it can be said that this is the source of the fervency that leads Christians to constantly look at the soul. Those who master their craft, such as teachers, healers and other spiritual people, can successfully review the mind and the body. The patient should not be placed in jeopardy or rely on other views. Evidently, there must be boundaries to use and study theory to subsequently use it with knowledge on the body and soul and the reasoning that cannot be taught but by the self. Indigenous Healer A says that a deep understanding of how energy affects healthcare professionals and their patients is much needed. The person must view their patient not as a quota or a number. They must express empathy to understand the whole patient, not just the symptom.

A willing desire to help people is needed to become a successful healthcare practitioner. To be active with spiritual arts is to apply self care. Christian Sorace’s “Communist Party Immunology” similarly looks at the missions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which were to heal “the wounded and damaged body of the nation” (Sorace 2017). The body of Indigenous Healer A seeks to heal the energies and to direct towards a better life. With Sorace and his research, they viewed the Communist Party as a person-cell ration which makes the person the cell that maintains the vitality of the party (referred to as the organism, or jiti 肌体) (Sorace 2017).

Indigenous Healer A has no ties towards this group, but the message to heal bodies and better others is useful to the endeavor of seeking social harmony. It is important to note that Indigenous Healer A only sympathizes with the spiritual side and does not agree with the politics of the Communist Party. Sorace mentioned Mao’s writing in 1949, after the Party triumphantly seized state power, where he wrote that “When a man reaches old age, he will die; the same is true of a party” (Sorace 2017). This theory of life, growth, and also death can account not just for a holistic body but can also lead to a part of a holistic nation if the body is taken care of. Thus an organization and the way it is formulated can also give a holistic scope to how political systems rely on holistic health. Holistic care to Indigenous Healer A has the mind, body, and spirit work to serve communities. There is a need for holistic care to challenge the mind and for Indigneous Healer Ato change the energy signature of the body, mind, and spirit while acknowledging that they might have not every answer. They say no one person has truth to every problem in medicine. Indigenous Healer A utilizes holistic care as a center for communal healing and for groups of healers to do the work their spiritual paths have led them to. This idea of the community brought newer eyes and revisions to the soul and the dynamics.

Indigneous Healer A stated they were glad to be part of this project and to know that their practices as an energy healer are needed, in fact paramount, to holistic care. They normally give more than what they take with their energies and that can leave them drained in their line of work. This can be harmful if Indigneous Healer A doesn’t take their proper rest and to provide components to questions about their spiritual practices. Questions of who I am and other self identity questions connect back to the community according to Indigenous Healer A, the fracturing causes a spiritual quest for themselves to find themselves via activity and other interests. Tucker’s “The Body’s Own Bioweapons” describes this idea of the biological and the harm within oneself through bioregulators, a class of natural chemicals in the human body that control vital functions such as heart rate, respiration, temperature, sleep, mood, and the immune response (Tucker 2008). As examples of biological and scientific aspects of an unsettled spirit, the biothreats also include molecules angiotensin, which raises blood pressure and vasopressin, an agent that regulates the body's water balance (Tucker 2008). Essentially, these can be used as a tool or as a weapon depending on the doses and how it is balanced to help the body. To prevent the misuse of these natural body chemicals for hostile purposes, scientists and holistic healers must perform close analysis to understand the nature of bioregulators through a holistic approach. The questions coming from patients and practitioners with holistic care narrows down to its essential need for society.

Shaman A got into health practitioner work due to their chronic health and their pain as a youth. As their family is oriented towards western medicine, they saw multiple doctors and took a plane to be treated at a Cleveland clinic for their pain. They were given oxycontin and other opiates to mask, rather than heal,  their symptoms. Shaman A believed that healing wasn't an option, only the mitigation of their symptoms. They began exploring shamanism as a child when they began to have visions involving floating entities and spirits in their bedroom. This opened up a spiritual awakening for Shaman A which led to learning about healing modalities, supplements, nutritional support, and other mind-body techniques accompanied by shamanic healing. Shaman A used these energies and models to help shift their health for the better. Shaman A also attended a shaman training school and sought shaman mastery and teaching at the Andes in Peru. They ultimately believe that the pain and the way that the mind is separate but it is one.

According to Shaman A, physical bodies can control pain and create loops in our minds to deter that pain from ending. This means that with physical vs. psychosomatic illness, they believe the connection between the mind and body is more closer than what we think. When their mind plays a role, Shaman A says that it can trigger people but the mind-body connection must be fully explored. Their practice relies on the use of treating the physical body in a desire to holistically treat themselves. The “energy field” informs the body and the practitioner becomes aware of the “multidimensional beings” that both them and the patient are. Regarding questions about the advancement of medicine, Shaman A couldn’t speak on that subject, as they didn’t want to speculate. In Demian and Whiting’s research article “Inappropriate Attitudes, Fitness to Practice and the Challenges Facing Medical Educators,” they outline why morally inappropriate attitudes may give rise to concerns about fitness. To these researchers, to practice medicine such as holistic care, there must not be misuse of benefits around the mind, body, and soul (Demian 2007).

By being inappropriate, Demian and co. argues that those types of attitudes may raise concerns due to the harmful behavior that may affect the care of the patient (Demian 2007). It is vital to place more emphasis on the patient being first within a holistic practice once the practitioner is holistically aligned and displays welcoming energy to their patient. This can be seen through such practices as Shaman A clearing space for more spiritual energy and divinity to be accessed (Demian 2007). Shaman A, who calls themselves a doctor of the soul, will continue to offer insight on building foundational practices.

Shaman A believes that faith can be seen in listening to one’s story, having an indirect spirit through reading, and sources such as in the depth of biblical experience. Spirituality must be an experience self-learned and to make their judgment by making it a concept. For Shaman A they take direct experience and encourage their patients not to see them at face value; rather, they should seek to have those experiences themselves. They only saw benefits in believing for patients, as to them they note that from an unnamed source that it is scientifically proven that those who believe in something will be happier. They believe that Ramadan, Lent, and other religious ceremonies acts as placebo effects but that they regardless yield great progress in healing power. If it affects the patient's care, Shaman A wishes and actively seeks better preparation with a client by first aligning themselves in meditation and doing some breath work to open sacred space. They call the four directions, mother earth, father sky, and may open sacred space once the patient is there or before they arrive. Shaman A may use sacred tobacco before a session to shift their consciousness and to improve their concentration. They do not include bodily movements into their definition of holistic care and seek to better themselves through other experiences and spiritual aspects.

They believe that to be certified among healthcare practitioners, proper training is needed. The practitioner that has completed some formal training should be the ones that patients should venture towards. Compassion and the ability to listen is a major factor that needs to be added to healthcare practitioners’ training, as they must be able to listen and learn. With Yeung and Martin's “Spiritual Fitness Definition and Key Constructs,” they stated that the importance of fitness domains, such as physical and psychological fitness, is intuitive. However, it is not immediately apparent how spiritual fitness may be beneficial for Air Force readiness and resilience (Yeung, Martin 2013). For many people, spiritual beliefs influence their outlook on the world tremendously, such as with Shaman A shaping their life based on their experiences with non-Western medicine and studying shamanism. Martin and Yeung believe that these may contribute to resilience and wellbeing and result in improved force readiness and performance (Yeung-Martin, 2013).

This report discusses Air Force-designed spiritual fitness that is conceptualized by empirical literature, a notable complement to the journey of the Shaman A and their desire and passion to help patients (Yeung Martin, 2013). Identifying key constructs of spiritual fitness and their relationship to wellbeing and resilience lends more significance to the success of spiritual interventions. No matter the specialization, they must be able to listen or negative experiences may occur, which Shaman A stresses a lot. Their holistic care functions as a support to the mind, body, and spirit on a journey of self-transformation and as an acknowledgment that what shows up in the body may have roots in the mental,emotional, or spiritual level, necessitating the treatment of the whole person’s mind, body, and spirit. Finally, Shaman A remarked that Western medicine is discovering a lot every day and hopes that  the practice stays open-minded to spiritual answers.

Discussion:

Each of the five healthcare professionals had interesting perspectives and offered similar but distinct comments. Each took wisdom from the initial idea that holistic health is the use of the advancements within the medical field and spirituality. Their ways to provide for people resulted in more physical, holistic, spiritual, and soulful approaches. These healthcare practitioners collectively wanted to seek to better themselves along with helping their patients. This research project proved that the development of compassion and passion are already components of holistic care and that they are dedicated each time and uses ways to find ways to work on their holistic definition.

Nutritionist A and their holistic take on ritual practices work helps their patients but they acknowledge that their use can have their limits unless more training and new methods become available. Their practice is used as a way to help and restore, the main reason why I added the Bochanski piece to compliment the holistic values but also ways in which holistic care can be done in a place of healing along with a chance to be within scientific traditions and expanding ideas. Nutritionist A wanted to wish the patient their way of spirituality but when it came to choices for them, their holistic care was framed on the mindset to support and care for the body along with the mind and spirit to secure wellness externally and internally.

Athletic Trainer A believes again that healthcare interest, in general, involves  wanting to be a part of the passion and having compassion as well. They believe that the mind has a huge part in it as they say that “physical touch… kind of just progresses them a little bit more… the physical touch lets someone know that they’re there.” The interviewee believes that a holistic approach  does play a role and that the healthcare professionals must understand all parts of the mind, body, and soul to be a successful practitioner and to do their job efficiently. Technology helps with new advancements, such as therapeutic modalities and even laser treatment. Hosseinkhani and the study is a reference to their ideas and how working with technology embraces new directions for faith can be seen from more as a biological approach than a spiritual approach. How the medicinal stories can be compiled towards the composition to biomedical advancement and bodily movements in the kinesiological study depends on the passion itself. Athletic Trainer A offered many guidelines towards this, which is also how Cohen seeks the article with morals and ethics among professional athletes was a good pairing to help analyze how their idea thoughts would be bungled and kept going with different statues of helping patients and to perform their job under certain ideas and other senses of actions.

With Chiropractor A and their journey to help heal people, Singleton and their use of preserving history and other spiritual ideas were given cultural meanings in how Chiropractic A’s methods are seen as another way to advance technology, better treatment, and deepen both the practitioners’ faith in their tools and the patients’ faith in their doctor. Chiropractor A uses tested materials and references the Singleton article in regards to how their miraculous healing story has led to the advancement of technology. They understand divinity and wished to place themselves across a plane where the technology and the medicine is given is function but only through the lens of a healthcare practitioner that has done the learning and the certification enough to properly care and be compassionate for a patient's needs. Chiropractor A does not mention themselves as having a reliance on the spirit to aid her with her work. The new methods made through care, trust, technology, and other means fall within their capacity to learn new materials and methods along with their analytical and substantial body of knowledge they have on the patients they are seeing. They will continue to use modernized technology to examine musculoskeletal issues and also holistic issues well after the initial checkup.

With Indigenous Healer A, I can't stress how much of a very unique, spiritual view they held. As they learned more of their power to heal both physical and spiritual ailments, they devoted themselves to the practice of their ancestors. Their massive involvement with spiritual guidance, development, and growth which led to their present place even gave new terms to what I see in holistic care as they mentioned that physical, mental, and spiritual pain are connected to emotions. Not only that, they saw how the body has memory, which gives him more ways to alleviate and seek out bigger issues. Moreover, this caused me to refer back to one of the sources from a while ago on tamax chi’—a type of omen that speaks of impending suffering, usually of a terminal nature, for a member of one's close family. This, along with the comfort of knowing more about the generational turmoil of the past, helped me to seek more ways to define their care and unusual thinking towards gaining peace. It is this way of departing, this intentionality to hone the spirit, that intrigued throughout the process.

Indigenous Healer A’s beliefs hold that holistic care can enable a deeper understanding of spirituality as they also see that every patient is a reflection of their life. Their journey allows them to reach out to various people across the world and have them seek them out energy healing from past trauma and other incidents. Their work in Hawaii and their setting to gain spirituality exemplifies the sacredness and the importance of incorporating culture into health as well to develop deeper holistic practices. Indigenous Healer A visualizes themselves as “a bridge towards the spiritual and the science,” and their holistic healing is bringing back methods to heal both on a spiritual and scientific level that takes more analytical work to explain. They encourage their patients to face these experiences and similar spiritual events. Indigenous Healer A believes the power of belief is strong and can affect the patient holistically as well. Their use of health, spirituality, and embracing positive emotions in treatments is commendable.

Shaman A’s story of their chronic pain and being unable to find a resource towards now challenging Western modalities through their practice is also really great to record and to hear. How they are family-oriented towards Western medicine and then finding shamanism as healing is a holistic approach many don't usually attempt. Shaman A performed spiritual approaches and used energy and other forms of awakening within the practices. These included them having visions and seeing entities floating above their bedrooms and becoming more communicative with spirits. This path towards shamanism for Shaman A represents the path towards holistic care as instead of incorporating it into estern-style medicine, Shaman A looked to the use of healing modalities, supplements, nutritional support, and other mind-body techniques. It was interesting to hear how they believe that the pain and the mind-self are separate but are actually one vital force. Their essence of physical vs psychosomatic illness starts from the dealings of pain but most specifically the mingling between the mind and the body. Shaman A mentions mind and body connections but their use of the term “multidimensional beings” really puts into perspective that holistic care isn't located on just one person. Holistic care is essentially an interpersonal style of care that can only be attuned to certain people as people vary between mind, body, and spirit. Shaman A doesn’t deal with the technology; instead, they adopt a shamanistic model that relies on energy, working with the people personally, and clearing spaces for them if needed to reach their full potential within the sessions they attend.

Overall, I used the reading of Demian to reference ethics and moral codes in the workplace and with providing care. Ensuring that Shaman A keeps being a doctor of the soul, they will continue to offer more careful thoughts on how they make a holistic foundation in their practice. They may use sacred tobacco before a session to shift their consciousness and to improve their concentration, but with more applications, more studies can be done to show the pros and cons. Shaman A’s use of tobacco to help the patient is another variation of spiritual/holistic care. To them it is giving “multidimensional beings” another way to dissect holistic care and get placement in regards to treatment. They do not include bodily movements into their definition of holistic care and seek to better themselves through other experiences and spiritual aspects.

Lastly, the final remarks from Shaman A deal with their use of formal training and once again stressing the compassion towards their practice and other healthcare practitioner’s work as important. I used Yeung and Martin's “Spiritual Fitness Definition and Key Constructs” as a way to see how spiritual fitness and wellbeing must be expressed in ways that allow for benefits and not detriments to the body. Shaman A and this article complemented each other through spiritual and physical applications. Their practice doesn't concern bodily movements, which can be a difficulty in processing physical applications. I have to express again that the holistic care of Shaman A focuses on the support to the mind, body, and spirit on a journey of self-transformation. They acknowledge that the body is interconnected on many planes on different levels and also consisting of a holistic trifecta on mind, body, and spirit. Looking for answers is extremely important to looking for and delving into how the body itself seeks to open processes with holistic care.

[Conclusion]

Conclusively, this research project has been deemed to be incredible with its resources and information brought from the five interviewees. It was an incredible experience using the information from the recordings and supplementing to continue maintaining, expressing, detailing, refining, and overall utilizing the term that is holistic care. From this project, I wished to find new ways to express holistic care along with examining the practices of those who utilize  natural, holistic, or alternative forms of medicine. I use this material as a base to develop more holistic methods that will help more people over time when more research studies reveal themselves. From my own experiences with holistic care and the methods that I used, there must be more ways to enter and also to apply holistically among broader ranges of medical communities. The questions I asked each of the practitioners were synthesized towards finding the similarities and to look for principal connections for future study. Each practitioner had their work but compassion, passion, learning, wholeness, wellness, and other holistic terms were found uniformly amongst the five interviewees as important.

Holistic Care And Real World Applications

Holistic health is the use of the advancements within the medical field and spirituality to provide a way for people to develop new talents and skills to benefit themselves and the science around them. Similar to the active community of Sisters of Life, a contemplative and active religious community dedicated to protecting life culture, we must also build connections in science and religion (Spampinato, Donnell 2013). The ongoing process of establishing new connections between science and religion is broadening new terms for treatment. In essence, the utilization of a new way to express life and death within this world is constantly changing and bringing new terms about. By immersing myself with the issues within finding and identifying why healthcare professionals use body movements within their care, I can then pair them within a frame that helps promote holistic care in the hopes that this research betters the community and can be used as an expansive way to add more information to the practice that is holistic care.

As I identify people and institutions from the practical hospital to spiritual centers, the quality of care must be optimal within the places I visit as well. Orly Tamir and others researched in “Comparing assessment of diabetes-related quality of life between patients and their physicians” about their self-identity with discerning the quality of life of diabetic patients and their caretakers’ needs (Tamir 2018). Although this is a comprehensive, multidimensional constructencompassing physical and psychosocial wellbeing, the study examines how the quality of life differs among patients with diabetes in primary care and in multi-disciplinary diabetes clinics. After surveying a total of 136 patients and 39 treating physicians, results indicated that there was

a strong connection with physicians perceiving their patients’ QoL as worse than the QoL assessed by the patients themselves (Tamir 2018). This means that a physician might not be able to identify all abnormalities going on with their patient but could still make a hasty decision regarding a patient's health (Tamir 2018). Tamir and his research group found that primary care physicians were better at assessing their patients’ overall wellbeing while diabetes-specialists were better at assessing their patients’ diabetes-specific QoL (Tamir 2018). Compared to holistic care, it shows specialization in profession and better assessment in areas they know. Interestingly enough, when the diabetes duration was longer, results showed it was more difficult for physicians to accurately assess QoL (Tamir 2018). By looking at diseases and physical immobility, these results support the need for holistic care and its applications, as holistic care physicians cover a wide variety of specialized health issues.

Healthcare practitioners in this day and age need to be specialized or have knowledge in the task of physical and or metaphysical healing that is certified by some higher power (i.e either by government or God). In his article “Fatalism, the Self, Intentionality, and Signs of Ill Portent in Quintana Roo, Mexico,” Callahan examines the Mayans of the Yucatán Peninsula and their fatalistic ideas of fate (Callahan 2017). Among the Mayans, tamax chi’ is a type of omen that warns of impending suffering, usually of a terminal nature, that is fated to afflict a member of one's close family. (Callahan 71, 2017). Compared with the use of acceptance and the cycle of life and death, tamax chi’ offers comfort in light of those not having the direct answer to human suffering and turmoil in one’s lifetime. Mysteries can be unraveled and comfort can be found within holistic care and self-care, much like how Mayan omens are similar to symptoms in modern medicine (Callahan 76, 2017). In medicine, there is a stigma in finding unneeded or unwanted answers. With this revelation and ideology on searching for medical answers, practitioners battle with belief systems or religious rituals that mourn, honor, and/or affect the body. In her work “Nursing with a Message: Public Health Demonstration Projectsin New York City,” Patricia D’antonio examines early 1920’s New York and how their medical systems began to stress education for nurses to help aid more patients (D’antonio 2017). Similar to the tamax chi’, the unlimited search for spiritual truth drove practitioners to help patients deal with death and to cope with loss in a modern setting (D’antonio 18, 2017). Similar to how tamax chi' offers Mayans a sense of peace regarding the inevitability of death, having knowledge about the holistic aspects of a patient can help them increase longevity and if possible console the family on news related to the patient’s progress.

Healing is dependent on the professional, who finds ways to help guide a patient towards their own way of healing long post-treatment. Douglas Yeung and Marget Martin’s “Spiritual Fitness and Resilience” did extensive work on how fitness in a holistic mindset can be beneficial to the body. They noted that “The Air Force defines spiritual fitness as the ability to adhere to beliefs, principles, or values needed to persevere and prevail in accomplishing missions” (Yeung Martin 5, 2013). As this definition implies, spiritual fitness does not require any degree of religiosity or belief in the supernatural. To heal, one has to acknowledge that they need healing and find ways to better themselves. Religion does not have to be at the forefront of this, as through other metaphysical works and beliefs, this type of fitness can be achieved as well. Sports leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL), look to profit off the player’s health and will take measures to protect them by contracting them with benefits such as sponsorships, endorsements, and other financial benefits to keep them in the game. “A Proposal to Address NFL Club Doctors’ Conflicts of Interest and to Promote Player Trust” by Glenn Cohen devoted time and effort to research ways that the players can be further protected.

In a game that they are forced to sacrifice their bodies for high reward, NFL athletes constantly push for ways for protection in the game and to ensure longevity and post-career benefits from the NFL (Cohen 3, 2016). Cohen details on how NFL players receive excellent health care from trusted providers who are as free from conflicts of interest as realistically possible, allowing for more power to be given to the player (Cohen 5, 2016). Cohen goes more in-depth in the article by suggesting the addition of a Players' Medical Staff to support the players’ health decisions along with a Club Evaluation Doctor with exclusive loyalty to the club allowing for unbiased and conscious decisions (Cohen 15, 2016). What is best for the patient in competitive sport can work with determining ways to alleviate pains within a holistic mindset and offer health to all. To satisfy both parties, practitioners and the organization the player takes part in must immerse themselves in the player's wellbeing to perform treatment and to ensure that the player is in the right space and mindset to perform.

One can try to box spirituality within religion but religion is a manifestation of the spirit, connecting one to their community. Spiritual beliefs influence the outlook on the world tremendously, offering solace in turbulent times, and providing support from like-minded community members (Yeung-Matin 21, 2013). These beliefs contribute to resilience and wellbeing, which improves readiness, healing, and spiritual performance. Charms, karma, tamax chi’, and sin are references in a way that gives the user their own sense of folly, love, and search for self-care (Callahan 86, 2017). Spiritual fitness is being defined by the Air Force as a way we search for strength in our spiritual selves. Exemplifying holistic care in spiritual fitness and wellbeing can affect resilience in terms of finding the threshold in which each individual person can contain with strengthening oneself spiritually and physically. Reviewing the ability of spiritual interventions within fitness can be harsh as it works to process and eliminate potentially harmful and unnecessary works on the body. Discussion of spiritual health can help with channeling what is seen within holistic care. In fact, better understanding of spiritual and religious influences on self-harm and potential sucide may result in interventions that can address this important concern without unintended negative consequences on the patient (Martin-Yeung 28, 2013). Utilizing fitness can be beneficial, which I have heavily noted from my resources among the KNS staff on campus, consulting with Professor Householder on my idea of holistic practice. Overall, applying ideals of kinesiology can help spiritually and physically lead me to more knowledge on faith and the inner self.

Improving societal living, spiritual need, and overall holistic care of a patient through religious and physical actions can be done through a collaborative effort to increase holistic knowledge. Pieter Crafferts’ book “The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective” explores the works of Jesus from a social, anthropological approach that can be constructed from the view of the first-century Mediterranean world view and the Gospels as cultural artifacts related to this figure. In this book Crafferts points towards his ideal of Jesus and states that Jesus, “Spoke as a shamanic figure, and that means that his “teachings” were integrally connected to his life as such a figure. His teachings were part of what he was and did as a shamanic figure” (Crafferts 335, 2008). This ideal of how historical Jesus (HJ) researched and identified him as a shaman/healer with his mystical experiences, utterances, and reverence among his followers. Both priests and shamans hold some divine intermedicance with the world here and above. Essentially with the figure of Jesus Christ, Craffert exemplified this concept to categorize Jesus and his works as a modern example of a holistic doctor or practitioner of health whose agenda is to heal the sick (Crafferts 200, 2008).

The author’s agenda is to discover what sort of man and career would have kindled the experience of the gospel and how this “Galilean shaman” holds a key to modern holistic health. There are certain aspects that prevent us from knowing exactly what has happened in the past with only written documentation and other material in place. This knowledge sparked within Craffert the assumption that “The debate whether ancient people could remember better thanmodern people is, in a sense, trivial—obviously it is possible to improve memory by certain techniques and to record excellent recovery of information (like lists)” (Crafferts 113, 2008). To remember is to understand how the past connects with the present. As we look at this historical approach, healthcare practitioners can also be considered shamans orhealers as well in areas of unfamiliarity with indigneous healing and systems that are now archaic. Overall the shamanic model helps to understand what Jesus was, and most importantly a lens of a holistic healer and dynamic figure in history. More research needs to be done in the eyes of Crafferts “In order to obtain a full description of the life of a historical figure who is not easily captured by historical thinking” (Crafferts 422, 2008). It is working inside the cultural system and exploring moralities within different phases of life that helps to cultivate holistic care and praxis that will branch to support different areas.

Thomas Csordas’ “Morality as a Cultural System?” addresses that in the past decade, the anthropological study of morality has begun to unify. With the ideal of evil we search for the exotic and other things that can be harmful towards the body. Interestingly enough, Csordas avoided ways to decrypt what is defined as evil in practical medicine. Csordas reads that “Whence the readiness to dismiss evil as a mythological or metaphysical category rather than elaborating it as a moral or existential one? It may be in part due to a sense that evil is a “Christian concept” and therefore necessarily ethnocentric” (Csordas 526, 2013). Csordas addresses this issue and how this development of morality as a system can thrive as being intellectually successful and beneficial to the field of study (Csordas 2013). Along with the use of evil within religion and misconceptions cross-culturally, there can be a way of utilizing how evil is analyzed to see how holistic health can do more good than harm. Presently, culturally constructed morality can be translated to what is seen within healthcare systems and the progression of applied holistic care.

We can improve the overall wellness of a person by fostering a collaborative effort among all healthcare professionals. I wish to use my knowledge of religion and holistic care to see how holistic health impacts professions along with the patient’s lives. From physiotherapists to priests, from endocrinologists to practitioners of Chinese medicine, I want to find the dynamics of body movements and investigate them to infer their core religious tenants or philosophies. The scope of the project is to see how these practitioners are affected by holistic health and how their ideas have led to their career path. I want to view how holistic health practitioners visualize themselves and their work as a reflection of holistic health. Within Steven Greer and other researchers in the article “Palliative Care: A Holistic Discipline,” finding uses for a biomedical model is not enough, as a holistic quality is needed in palliative care (medicine for those with serious illnesses). From the five report examples from clinical practice in a hospice setting, the clinical reports suggest that palliative care can produce marked improvement medically and psychologically in terminally ill patients (Greer 9, 2015). It is imperative that holistic care takes advancements towards combining with modern era medicine. If we fail to make advancements through holistic care, that would result in not only failing doctors, but in patients being reluctant to receive treatment again. Holistic medicine is a union of science and spirituality and has potential with it’s multipurpose diagnosis with a patient’s health.

Niamh Humphries and co-researchers’ article “Failing to retain a new generation of doctors: qualitative insights from a high-income country” notes the failure of high-income countries, such as Ireland, to achieve a self-sufficient medical workforce. Along with global implications, particularly for low-income source countries, this article notes that the challenge lies with the physical workload. Humphries stated that “Respondents highlighted the challenge facing doctors in both completing their training and in practicing medicine – the long working hours, heavy workloads and high work intensity experienced” (Humphries 5, 2018). In the past decade, Ireland has doubled the number of doctors it trainsannually, but because of Ireland’s failure to retain doctors, the country outsourced itself to international doctors(Humphries 1, 2018). Thus, in order to halve its dependence on internationally trained doctors by 2030, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, Ireland must become more adept at retaining doctors.

This lies in new methods to help holistically reach these doctors and allow them to work in environments that will cultivate their talents within a system that will work to better fit their strengths. The paper explores the generational component of Ireland’s failure to retain doctors and makes recommendations for retention policy and practice from in-depth interviews that were conducted with 50 early career doctors between May and July 2015 (Humphries 1, 2018). Understaffed health systems and the way they are constrained within their workplace causes the new generation of doctors to leave Ireland and  seek the benefits and securities absent in their home country (Humphries 2, 2018). Along with this, the new generation of doctors have career options strongly shaped by globalization and by the benefits of emigration; support and higher pay (Humphries 3, 2018). Overall, the health system needs to address the issues of concern to a new generation of doctors regarding working conditions and training structures and also in terms of their desire for a more acceptable balance between work and life.

This balance for Isah Ambrose in “Specific features of medicines safety and pharmacovigilance in Africa” brings us closer to the wakeup call we need to find how organized holistic care methods could be implemented in more countries. The recent mass deployment of medicines to address diseases of public health significance in Africa posesadditional challenges to the health system with notable safety concerns as other errors with the quality, stealing, and the tested medicine served as safety issues for Africa (Asah 30, 2012). The first national pharmacovigilance centres established in Africa with membership of the World Health Organization (WHO) international drug monitoring programwere in Morocco and South Africa in 1992, and subsequent safety reports sent to the WHO global database (Vigibase) attest to the growth of pharmacovigilance in Africa, with the number of reports rising from 2695 in 2000 to over 25,000 in 2010 (Asah 25, 2012).

To repair the system and to work on reshaping the mind, the body, and the soul is how holistic care can make a difference and start more research within the community. The

reason I became inspired to do this project is because of my deep involvement with science and religion. I believe that religion is a field that can equally compete with the sciences and can hold a lot of potential for future medication, holistic health advancements, and for further discourse that will lead us in guiding the world to be peaceful. Through my investigation of holistic health, I want to provide more insight, ideologies, and advancements towards my society and my academic community. There are issues, work, and study within the field of holistic medicine that needs to be explored. One line from Spaminato, the first line of the Physician's Prayer, especially resonates with me: “Give skill to my hand, clear vision to my mind, kindness and sympathy to my heart.”(Spaminato, Donnell 4, 2013). This falls in line with my mission and the character I want to express to my patients one day. In order to have sympathy for the patients, we must continue to help one another and advance modern medical practices and faith values. Holistic health lies in the care within ourselves, for ourselves and the development of the systems that surround us in daily life: to care holistically.

Sources Cited

Callahan, R. (2017), Fatalism, the Self, Intentionality, and Signs of Ill Portent in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Anthropol Conscious, 28: 69-95. doi:10.1111/anoc.12066.

Cohen, I. G., H. F. Lynch, & C. R. Deubert, (2016). A Proposal to Address NFL Club Doctors' Conflicts of Interest and to Promote Player Trust. The Hastings Center report, 46 Suppl 2(SupplSupplhttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/310664845_A_Proposal_to_Address_

Craffert, Pieter F. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective. James Clarke & Co Ltd, 2008. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cgf5c5.

Csordas, Thomas J. “Morality as a Cultural System?” Current Anthropology, vol. 54, no. 5, 2013, pp. 523–546. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/672210.

DʹAntonio, P. (2017). Medicine and a Message. In Nursing with a Message: Public Health Demonstration Projects in New York City(pp. 13-34). New Brunswick, New Jersey; London: Rutgers University Press. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1jd94k2.7.

Greer, S., & M. Joseph (2016). Palliative Care: A Holistic Discipline. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 5–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534735415617015.

Humphries, N., S. Crowe & R. Brugha (2018). Failing to retain a new generation of doctors: qualitative insights from a high-income country. BMC health services research, 18(1), 144. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5917243/

Isah, A. O., S. N. Pal, S. Olsson, A., Dodoo, & R. S. Bencheikh, (2012). Specific features of medicines safety and pharmacovigilance in Africa. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 25–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098611425695.

NFL_Club_Doctors'_Conflicts_of_Interest_and_to_Promote_Player_Trust

Spampinato, C., & E. O’Donnell, (2013). Living Faith in Medicine. The Linacre Quarterly, 80(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1179/0024363912Z.0000000004.

Tamir, Orly et al. “Comparing assessment of diabetes-related quality of life between patients and their physicians.” Health and quality of life outcomes vol. 16,1 214. 19 Nov. 2018, doi:10.1186/s12955-018-1040-6.

Yeung, D., & M. Martin, (2013). Spiritual Fitness Definition and Key Constructs. In Spiritual Fitness and Resilience: A Review of Relevant Constructs, Measures, and Links to Well-Being (pp. 5-28). RAND Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt5hhv6n.8.

Holistic Care  Bibliography

Genealogy of Holistic Care

The scope that this bibliography follows are my ideas of holistic care, which includes  spiritual, mental, and physical application to progres fields (i.e internal medicine, psychology, physical therapy) concerning the wellbeing of a patient. I try to follow the ideal of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who lived in the 4th century B.C. and believed in the self-healing efforts in the body. Along with these attitudes I will stress from my analysis of my sources the essence of holistic care to the production of my work. Extensive research has been done and meaningful edits and discourse has been provided for this and also my other papers.  I am thankful for all the academia used to produce this project. To the Whittier College Religious Studies Department and to the Yale Historical Review I thank you. May your holistic health be strong and your ideals be constantly shaped through learning and experience.

Ainspan, N. D., Penk, W., & Kearney, L. K. (2018). "Psychosocial approaches to improving the military-to-civilian transition process." Psychological Services, 15(2), 129-134.http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ser0000259. This special issue of Psychological Services provides recent work in the psychosocial interventions for military service members who are entering into civilianhood. The effects of leaving the military and the military-to-civilian transition have been recorded and treated with psychosocial interventions utilized throughout history.  In conjunction with my project, this resource will explain how holistic care can be utilized within the psychological and social constructs of society (i.e military reintegration). It is important to address one’s visible and invisible wounds, but to also adopt holistic and integrative perspectives that work to help veterans adjust back to society. This issue validates new techniques utilizing past and new experiences from therapy to change careers as warriors to their new civilian work.

Baer, Hans A. “The Work of Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra: Two Holistic Health/New Age Gurus: A Critique of the Holistic Health/New Age Movements.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly, vol. 17, no. 2, 2003, pp. 233–250. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3655336. This article provides brief biographical sketches of Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra, two biomedically-trained physicians, to discuss their views on health. It also helps with understanding holistic health and New Age gurus who have attempted to integrate these practices, systems, and healing methods. This article examines how there are limitations and  improvements within the practice of holistic health, offering methods to converse on this. As new alternative methods start to treat both spiritual and medical means, these means provide patients and people who are without proper holistic health. This thinking may offer healthcare practitioners a chance to to utilize their expertise in medicine and potentially in spiritual growth.

Bochanski, P. G. (2014). Professing Faith, Professing Medicine: Physicians and the Call to Evangelize. The Linacre Quarterly, 81(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1179/2050854913Y.0000000012. This paper looks at The Hippocratic Oath, which traditionally establishes medicine as a profession: A career, or vocation based on the professing of an oath regarding personal and public behavior. For Catholic physicians, the commitments of the Oath of Hippocrates take on new meaning when seen in light of the promises made at Baptism and renewed every Easter. Although this paper addresses medical students, this can cover general practitioners who are practicing their faith. This paper considers the role of Catholic physicians as evangelizers, those who spread the message and values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. From her analysis on these messages and healing, Bochanski concludes all Catholic physicians are trained but have a practice of holistic care within them. With this information and the modern healthcare we have now, it makes sense on why more spiritual advisors, holistic medicine physicians, and other practitioners of alternative medicine seek counsel to help their mind, body, and soul.

Callahan, R. (2017), "Fatalism, the Self, Intentionality, and Signs of Ill Portent in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Anthropol Conscious, 28: 69-95. doi:10.1111/anoc.12066. In this article, the author discusses how among the Mayas of the Yucatán Peninsula, severe illnesses are linked with the Mayan belief in predetermined fate. This Maya fatalism finds one of its most prominent expressions in the tamax chi'—a type of omen that speaks of impending suffering, usually of a terminal nature, for a member of one's close family. Through analysis of data derived from years of research in the region, the author also demonstrates tamax chi’s relevancy with general understandings of self and intentionality. The results of the research show that while life is difficult, tamax chi' offers comfort in light of the chi not having the direct answer to human suffering and turmoil in one’s lifetime. With this revelation and ideology, it can be seen with practitioners how they battle with issues that the patients and family go through in situations where the injury or the condition of the patient may be fatal and may confront their praxis and belief system on how to deal with this. Yet this tamax chi' offers Mayans a sense of peace to depart, a holistic essence that only a practitioner or an observer of the medicine could apply.

Caqueo-Urízar, Alejandra et al. “Caregiver's quality of life and its positive impact on symptomatology and quality of life of patients with schizophrenia.” Health and quality of life outcomes vol. 15,1 76. 19 Apr. 2017, doi:10.1186/s12955-017-0652-6. This article goes over how the caregiver’s quality of life(QoL) experienced by patients with schizophrenia has been recognized, but few studies have assessed the relationship between the caregivers’ QoL and patients’ QoL. Using a sample of over 253 stabilized outpatients with schizophrenia and their caregivers from 3 Mental Health Services in Bolivia (N = 83), Chile (N = 85) and Peru (N = 85), caregivers’ and patients’ QoL were respectively assessed using two specific QoL questionnaires (S-CGQoL and S-QoL 18). Researchers found from this clinical data along with the following hypothesis using structural equation modeling (SEM) that caregivers' QoL may have an indirect effect on patients’ QoL mediated by their influence on the severity of psychotic symptoms. In conclusion, there was finding that improvement of caregiver’s QoL may have a direct impact on the psychotic symptoms of patients and indirectly on patient’s QoL, confirming the need for ongoing family interventions in these regions. As holistic care takes place, its need in the healthcare system and in the U.S become all the more important with not only mental health facilities but all facilities with healthcare practitioners.

Cohen, B. S., & Boni, R. (2018). "Holistic Nursing Simulation: A Concept Analysis". Journal of Holistic Nursing, 36(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010116678325.

This research article looks at simulation as technological and holistic within nursing programs to help better their care with patients. Simulation provides opportunities to apply knowledge and skill through the use of simulators, standardized patients, and virtual settings. Though simulation is useful as a technology, the nursing profession places importance on patient care, drawing on knowledge, theories, and expertise to administer patient care. With simulation-based learning and holistic medicine observation, it was found that the holistic nursing simulation allows for improved outcomes that can benefit patients, students, and faculty. Patients in the community ultimately benefit from higher quality care from nursing students and new graduate nurses because of the integrative learning from holistic nursing simulation. Even with increasing quality care, there is still a shortage of simulation scenarios that demonstrate the integration of the mind, body, and spirit. Essentially, this concept provides a base for future research as the holistic nursing simulation needs more inspection on its holistic capabilities.

Cohen, I. G., Lynch, H. F., & Deubert, C. R. (2016). "A Proposal to Address NFL Club Doctors' Conflicts of Interest and to Promote Player Trust". The Hastings Center report, 46 Suppl 2(Suppl Suppl 2), S2–S24. doi:10.1002/hast.651/. In this article, the authors detail how to ensure that National Football League (NFL) players receive excellent health care they can trust from providers who are as free from conflicts of interest as realistically possible. They also state that while players and clubs share an interest in player health, this structure can force the club doctors to have an obligation to the player and to the club making difficult judgments about when one party's interests must yield to another's. They argue that none of the three parties involved should prefer this conflicted approach, proposing to resolve the problem of dual loyalty by largely severing the club doctor's ties with the club and refashioning that role into one of singular loyalty to the player-patient. This would be accomplished by separating the roles of serving the player and serving the club and replacing them with a Players' Medical Staff (with exclusive loyalty to the player) and the Club Evaluation Doctor (with exclusive loyalty to the club). This helps to explain the broad ethical principles that guide us, providing a description of the role of the club doctor in the current system. If enacted, this proposal will help with caring more about the concerns of the player while also addressing what a club needs from the player to be healthy.

Craffert, Pieter F. “The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective”. James Clarke & Co Ltd, 2008. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cgf5c5. The aim of this book is to find more ways to explore the works of Jesus through a social and anthropological lens that can be constructed from the perspective of a first-century Mediterranean worldview and the Gospels as cultural artifacts related to this worldview. This model looks at historical Jesus(HJ) research and finds a way for these functions to work in a system that defines him as a shaman with his mystical experiences, utterances, and reverence among his followers. The author’s agenda is to discover what sort of man and career would have kindled the experience of the gospel and see how this “Galilean shaman” holds a key to holistic health that can be applied to modern times. As we look at this historical approach, healthcare practitioners can be considered healers and a part of the divine. This emphasizes that a comprehensive approach to how we view medicine in the past and future is important.

Cramer, Holger et al. “Yoga for improving health-related quality of life, mental health and cancer-related symptoms in women diagnosed with breast cancer.” The Cochrane database of systematic reviews vol. 1,1 CD010802. 3 Jan. 2017, doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010802.pub2. This article explains how yoga benefits women diagnosed with breast cancer as it lowers psychological distress; chronic pain; fatigue; and impaired quality of life post-diagnosis. Yoga comprises an ethical lifestyle, spiritual practice, and physical activity, which fits the parameters of holistic health. It is a complementary therapy that is commonly recommended for breast cancer-related impairments. Cramer and co-authors assessed the effects of yoga on health-related quality of life, mental health and cancer-related symptoms among women with a diagnosis of breast cancer who are receiving active treatment or have completed treatment. From their findings, Cramer found that moderate-quality evidence supports the recommendation of yoga as a supportive intervention for improving health-related quality of life and reducing fatigue and sleep disturbances when compared with no therapy. However, yoga compared to other exercise interventions holds very low quality evidence. Holistic health can prevail over its insufficiency by being paired and applied to other medical strategies in order to have greater results.

Csordas, Thomas J.(2013). “Morality as a Cultural System?” Current Anthropology, vol. 54, no. 5, 523–546. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/672210. Csordas in his article discusses that in the past decade, the anthropological study of morality has begun to unite in a programmed way. The author addresses this issue and how this development of viewing morality as a system can be intellectually beneficial to the field of anthropology. Constructing the problem of evil allows morality so with the use of medicine, how the practice is applied to the body, can be good or evil based on the adjustments made with the treatment between the patient and the practitioner. As the author sees anthropological literature on witchcraft as the area most likely to yield insights on evil, we can then challenge how evil is analyzed. From this we can see how morality can be constructed into a cultural system that is seen within healthcare systems and processes.

DʹAntonio, P. (2017). “Medicine and a Message”. In Nursing with a Message: Public Health Demonstration Projects in New York City(pp. 13-34). New Brunswick, New Jersey; London: Rutgers University Press. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1jd94k2.7. Stemming from the book, Nursing with a Message: Public Health Demonstration Projects in New York City, the article talks of the mandates of Affordable Care Act and explores the unknown history of the healthcare system dating back to the 1920s and the importance of what these programs did, especially for New York City. Charting the 1920s and 1930s, D’Antonio records the rise and fall of two community health centers in the neighborhoods of East Harlem and Bellevue-Yorkville. The first chapter maps the social, political, and public health landscape of New York City as it planned to meet these challenges in the aftermath of the First World War. With a small group of white, middle-class, and well-educated public health nursing leaders they worked together and reformed practices of “medicine and a message”. This allowed for the nurses to serve immigrant families and those from marginalized groups. This brings a sense of spirituality, care for the body, and the ethics surrounding medical practitioners and the government to guarantee quality care for the patients and their families. With this chapter, it serves as an agonist for why holistic medicine can serve a great role in micro and macro-roles in their respective healthcare facilities and the importance of applying the principles of health and hygiene to those turned away by the healthcare systems.

Feinmann, Jane. (2015). “Restoring Africa’s Health Systems after Ebola.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 351. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26523839. This article talks of how medical teams are working to restore Africa’s health system after the Ebola outbreak. There were many people who were not supported and those who were not able to be reached with medical treatment in the right way. Essentially, the chair group Doctors of the World is determined to support the health system during the Ebola response and to work towards restoring the country of Sierra Leone, one of the poorest in the nation in its health care provisions. The charity wants to go out into the communities and then to provide extra support to help local leaders build the knowledge in supporting the people. With this self-serve knowledge, holistic health can play a huge role in making sure those affected by Ebola are cared for in mind, body, and soul.

Friese, Carrie.(2013). “Realizing Potential in Translational Medicine: The Uncanny Emergence of Care as Science.” Current Anthropology, vol. 54, no. S7, 2013, pp. S129–S138. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/670805.This paper examines how a laboratory has responded to the problems of translational medicine, the science of using methods and past research to build on biomedical advancements. By creating an experimental system that links care for model animals with care for future patients, these scientists explicitly integrate caring practices into their scientific research to find translatable results. To have better care for animals means better care for humans. With understanding how care is a known element in these experiments, they repressed this factor to see how these results vary. Ultimately, this article finds that by attending to care, we can better understand how living beings are or aren’t being potentialized. This translates within the healthcare practitioners’ places of work and especially patients as they have to care for all. A holistic approach to get the results needed for their patients to experience a sort of growth to develop more as practitioners of the art thus care practices are potentializing. Indeed, care is central to the everyday idea of potential itself.

Greer, S., & Joseph, M. (2016). “Palliative Care: A Holistic Discipline”. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 5–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534735415617015. Although the mind and body are inextricably interwoven, psychological factors have received insufficient attention within medicine. This journal article examines how the biomedical model is not enough as a holistic quality is needed to approach this, such as within palliative care, medicine for those with serious illnesses. Five report examples from clinical practice in a hospice setting suggest that palliative care can produce marked improvement medically and psychologically in terminally ill patients. Along with the alleviation of prolonged grief among primary carers, there was a discussion that randomized controlled studies are required to confirm these clinical findings. Additionally this would determine which type of psychological therapy can alleviate the most stress among the terminally ill. Overall, this article can support my hypothesis that the practice of medicine applied is successful based on holistic setting or proper preparation of the mind, body, and soul.

Hosseinkhani, A., Falahatzadeh, M., Raoofi, E., & Zarshenas, M. M. (2017). “An Evidence-Based Review on Wound Healing Herbal Remedies From Reports of Traditional Persian Medicine”. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 22(2), 334–343.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2156587216654773#articleCitatio nDownloadContainer. This journal article looks at research on wound healing agents as a developing area in biomedical sciences, specifically traditional Persian medicine as one of holistic systems providing valuable information on natural remedies. To collect the evidence for wound-healing medicines from traditional Persian medicine sources, five main pharmaceutical manuscripts in addition to related contemporary reports from sources such as PubMed and ScienceDirect were studied. Their underlying mechanisms were discussed along with 65 identified herbs used in Persian medicine for their wound-healing properties relating to anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and wound-healing activities. It was found that while 40 possessed one of those qualities, 10 filtered plants possessed the potential of all those qualities, making these plants viable products for vivo and clinical research. With the combination of holistic medicine and praxis, designing traditional herbs to fit along different medical praise and healthcare cultures can be a huge advancement for the biomedical field.

Humphries, N., Crowe, S., & Brugha, R. (2018). “Failing to retain a new generation of doctors: qualitative insights from a high-income country”. BMC health services research, 18(1), 144. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5917243/. The failure of high-income countries, such as Ireland, to achieve a self-sufficient medical workforce has global implications, particularly for low-income source countries. In the past decade, Ireland has doubled the number of doctors it trains annually, yet its failure to retain doctors causes them to outsource to international doctors. To halve its dependence on internationally trained doctors by 2030, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations, Ireland must become more adept at retaining doctors. The paper explores the generational component of Ireland’s failure to retain doctors and makes recommendations for retention policy and practice from in-depth interviews conducted with 50 early career doctors between May and July 2015. These interviews revealed that a new generation of doctors differ from previous generations in several distinct ways. Early experiences in seeing over-stretched, understaffed health systems and the way they are constrained within their workplace causes them to either remain or leave Ireland. The new generation of doctors have career options that are also strongly shaped by globalization and by the opportunities presented by emigration such as familiar support and higher pay. Overall, the health system needs to address the issues of concern to a new generation of doctors in terms of working conditions and training structures and also in terms of their desire for a more acceptable balance between work and life, as this is essential to achieving medical workforce self-sufficiency.

Hurn, S. and Badman-King, A. (2019), “Care as an Alternative to Euthanasia? Reconceptualizing Veterinary Palliative and End-of-life Care”. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 33: 138-155. doi:10.1111/maq.12494. This article details examples of nonhuman death at a multi-faith ashram, a dwelling place of a Hindu sage, whose members vehemently oppose all forms of killing on religious grounds. Through exploring their efforts in palliative care for animals and their emphasis on natural death as a means of respecting the sanctity of life, the practical, emotional, and theoretical viability of caring for, instead of killing, other animals at the ends of their lives is considered. Death itself is questioned from a holistic approach through the way that the deceased, both human and nonhuman, are handled. Indeed, paying mindful attention to how individual animals are cared for as they die reveals the potential violence inherent in both palliative care leading to natural death and euthanasia, blurring perceptions of good and bad death in both veterinary and human medicine. This article gives the reader knowledge on how we examine the treatment along with how holistic medicine can be applied through all courses of life, especially in the near stages of one’s death (or a metaphorical death as well).

Isah, A. O., Pal, S. N., Olsson, S., Dodoo, A., & Bencheikh, R. S. (2012). “Specific features of medicines safety and pharmacovigilance in Africa”. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 25–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098611425695. The thalidomide tragedy in the late 1950s and early 1960s, where thousands of pregnant women were given the medicine to treat leprosy but later had children with birth defects, raised questions about the safety of medicinal products. This paper reviews some of these features and the current status of pharmacovigilance in Africa which shows weak healthcare structures, basic infrastructure, personnel, equipment and facilities. The recent mass deployment of medicines to address diseases of public health significance in Africa poses additional challenges to the health system, raising safety concerns such as errors with quality, stealing, and other issues. Consequently, the first national pharmacovigilance centres established in Africa with membership of the World Health Organization (WHO) international drug monitoring programme were in Morocco and South Africa in 1992. Since its establishment, more individual case safety reports have been committed to the WHO global database (Vigibase) with the number of reports rising from 2695 in 2000 to over 25,000 in 2010, attesting to the growth of pharmacovigilance in Africa. Overall, engagement on identified challenges of Africa’s weak pharmacovigilance systems needs inspection to establish proper healthcare systems.

Kapferer, Bruce. “A Celebration of Demons: Exorcism and the Aesthetics of Healing in Sri Lanka”. Berg, 1991. Kapferer argues in the preface and the introduction of this book that the techniques and aesthetics of healing in Sri Lanka cannot be reduced to Western psychoanalytic or psychotherapeutic terms. Holistic health varies in different areas from counseling to the consumption of herbs to calm one’s soul and to create an aesthetic balance within the body. The healing factors of the people of Sri Lanka can also be internalized through their faith and how they perform rituals. These rituals that can’t be replicated can give great research for holistic medicine as a non-Western view personalizing the effects of holistic care in terms of faith and physical effort. The mind cannot function without the body and soul, so with these critiques it is true that Western psychoanalytical cannot breach without covering all holistic practices and the work needed to perform these exorcisms and ways of healing.

Katongole, E. (2017). “Field hospital: HEAL Africa and the politics of compassion in Eastern Congo”. Missiology, 45(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091829616680649. The essay explores the image of the church as a field hospital so as to make explicit interconnections between evangelism, ecclesiology, and politics. Founded by Dr. Jo Lusi and his wife Lyn, HEAL Africa, Africa’s holistic ministry in and around Goma in Eastern Congo, provides an illuminating example of mission critical and constructive engagement with societies, change, and conflict. Accordingly, by attending to the story of HEAL Africa, the essay shows how the church’s engagement with a wounded world takes the form of dimensional compassion. Thus, HEAL Africa’s compassionate engagement in Eastern Congo helps to illuminate the historical, practical, and spiritual dimensions of the church as a field hospital. This report utilizes the field and serves as a reminder that the church’s mission and calling in the world is to be a sacrament of God’s saving love, or as Pope Francis puts it, to “initiative and crystallize processes” that reflect God’s compassion in the world. With the violence in Congo, this holistic care serves as a compelling example of the mission’s critical and constructive engagement in a broken world. This can cooperatively work with holistic medicine to help others and restore them physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Kinchen, E. (2015). “Development of a Quantitative Measure of Holistic Nursing Care”. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 33(3), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010114563312. Holistic care has long been a defining attribute of nursing practice. From the earliest years of its formal history, nursing has favored a holistic approach in the care of patients, which became more important over time. The expansion of nursing’s responsibility in delivering comprehensive primary care from the need for evidence-based legitimation of holistic nursing care is essential. The practices need to be legitimate among insurance companies, policy-makers, healthcare providers, and patients, which will highlight the need to examine the holistic properties of nursing care. The Holistic Caring Inventory is a theoretically sound, valid, and reliable tool; however, it does not comprehensively address attributes that have come to define holistic nursing care. Overall, it is necessary to develop a method to quantitatively measure holistic medicine.

Kirkwood T. B. (2005). “Time of our lives”. What controls the length of life?. EMBO reports, 6 Spec No(Suppl 1), S4–S8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1369269/pdf/6-7400419.pdf. By the year 2050, one in five of the world's population will be 65 or older, which foresees profound medical, biological, philosophical, and political changes in the coming century. In Time of Our Lives, Tom Kirkwood draws on more than twenty years of research to make sense of the evolution of aging, to explain how aging occurs, and to answer fundamental questions, such as why women live longer than men. He shows that we age because our genes, evolving at a time when life was "nasty, brutish, and short," placed little priority on the long-term maintenance of our bodies. With such knowledge, along with new insights from genome research, we can devise ways to target the root causes of aging and of age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. He even considers the possibility that human beings will someday have greatly extended life spans or even be free from senescence altogether. Essentially, Time of Our Lives is a clear, original and, above all, inspiring investigation of a process that helps pioneer new ways for practice such as holistic care can be seen in today's age.

Klatt, M., Webster, O., Srinivasan, R., Zuber, K., Hausmann, M., Gabram, O., & Marchenko, N. (2019). “Advancing Global Health and Medicine Through the Energy of Youth: A Research Team Burning Bright”. Global Advances in Health and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1177/2164956119847624. More than a decade ago, tasked with the creation of an undergraduate research team in the field of integrative health and wellness, the discovery was made that undergraduate study is the perfect venue through which to ignite integrative researchers and clinicians for the future. This research team has produced a lasting impact on the university and community at the individual, local, national, and international levels. The students have obtained invaluable skills in the field of integrative health and wellness, equipping them to be effective clinicians for the future. The authors ended by saying that being part of this team has served to both expand their knowledge of integrative medicine and to help the students develop personally and professionally, giving them more ways to grow academically. Ultimately, this research team has empowered the creation of future health professionals that will contribute to the advancement of global health and wellness.

Lambert, T. W., Smith, F., & Goldacre, M. J. (2016). “Changes in factors influencing doctors’ career choices between one and five years after graduation: questionnaire surveys of UK doctors”. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 109(11), 416–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076816672432. This report was done via questionnaire survey by post and email to study changes in factors influencing United Kingdom doctors’ career specialty choices. A total of 10,473 doctors who replied to the surveys both one and five years after graduating from all UK medical schools between 1993 and 2008. With each of the choices done developed into a product that birthed each of 12 specified factors in influencing the doctors’ choice of future specialty ‘a great deal’. From the results, the researchers found that enthusiasm for and commitment to the specialty was the greatest influence on career choice at year 1 (66%) and year 5 (74%). Other factors occurred but notably there was an increase in the importance of promotion/career prospects, self-appraisal of own skills, student experience of subject and enthusiasm/commitment for more recent cohorts compared with older cohorts. This means that having a holistic praxis within the research to develop into doctors can help increase interest and focus for these practitioners of medicine.

Matos, Ticiane Dionizio de Sousa et al. “Quality of life and religious-spiritual coping in palliative cancer care patients.” Revista latino-americana de enfermagem vol. 25 e2910. 10 Jul. 2017, http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-11692017000100359. This article goes over the question of comparing the quality of life and religious-spiritual coping of palliative cancer care patients with a group of healthy participants. Assessing whether the perceived quality of life is associated with the religious-spiritual coping strategies, the study identified the clinical and sociodemographic variables related to quality of life and religious-spiritual coping. This study surveyed 192 people: 96 palliative outpatient care patients at a public hospital in the interior of the state of São Paulo and 96 healthy volunteers. The research group used the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire, a sociodemographic questionnaire, and the Brief Religious-Spiritual Coping scale, which showed that healthy participants with better quality of life scores showed better religious-spiritual coping. When the patient is healthy in mind, body, and soul, there is more connection to the holistic field, emphasizing that a holistically sound body allows for new levels of understanding within the human body.

McClanahan, Kimberly K et al. “Holistic health: does it really include mental health?.” TheScientificWorldJournal vol. 6 2092-9. 14 Mar. 2006, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2006/858239/abs/. This article talks of how holistic health (the incorporation of mind and body as equally important and unified components of health) is a concept that has been used for over three decades. However, in the U.S., mental health is not seen as conceptually integral to physical health. Holistic health cannot be realized until the historical concept of mind-body dualism addresses mental health as a component. With both physical and mental impairments, it is said that this could limit the potential of holistic medicine but instead gives careful thought and analysis of opportunities that holistic medicine can be applied. Their research saw mental and physical health as separate entities, concluding that the U.S. generally incorporates the tenets of holistic health in its view of the mental and physical health of its citizens. While they provide some suggestions for changing that viewpoint, the nation as a whole needs a revision with its practices. Overall, it is to the practitioners’ discretion to handle the mental and physical health while performing holistic medicine, a question I will delve into with tht series of questions for the practitioners in my senior project.

Mills, J., & Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M. (2017). “Fat Talk and Body Image Disturbance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 41(1), 114–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684316675317. Although the discussion of body dissatisfaction is well established, the link between fat talk and other body image disturbances are specifically researched in this article. This meta-analytic review explored the cross-sectional, experimental, and longitudinal relations between fat talk and body dissatisfaction, body surveillance, body shame, pressure to be thin, thin-ideal internalization, body checking, and appearance-based comparisons. Overall, 35 relevant studies via electronic databases were used and meta-analyses provided effect size estimates based on study design and whether fat talk was the predictor or outcome of body image disturbance. These analyses showed that fat talk is related to a broader range of body image constructs than just body dissatisfaction. This accumulated evidence from longitudinal and experimental studies—although limited in number—suggests it is more plausible that fat talk is a risk factor for these body image constructs, rather than a consequence of them. This allows holistic care more precedence in dealing with a patient regardless of the praxis or areas it is distributed or focused to. The patient must be responsive but also be mentally sound when fat talk arises or the patient’s overall health will decrease due to the negligence of the patient's feelings.

Miskelly, Sandra. “A Parish Nursing Model: Applying the Community Health Nursing Process in a Church Community.” Journal of Community Health Nursing, vol. 12, no. 1, 1995, pp. 1–14. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3427131. This article reflects the need to have a community health nursing model that fits within a church. The U.S government and the public health community will work to train nurses within these settings to help push better medical efforts and provide a space for holistic health to grow. Interesting enough, even without the wide promotion of these parish nurses, they still have a unique opportunity to autonomously implement health care practices that will shape the medical breadth of an entire church community. As health care reform continues to heighten the focus on community health programs and health outcomes, nurses can help provide more care for their patients. This thinking may leave healthcare practitioners with more ways to utilize their expertise in medicine and potentially in spiritual growth.

Musa, A. S. (2017). “Spiritual Care Intervention and Spiritual Well-Being: Jordanian Muslim Nurses’ Perspectives”. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 35(1), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010116644388. This study explores the frequency of spiritual care intervention and its association with nurses’ own spiritual well-being in a convenience sample of 355 Jordanian Arab Muslim nurses. The nurses were recruited from different hospitals, representing both public and private health care sectors in northern and central Jordan. With a cross-sectional descriptive and correlational design, results indicated that Jordanian Muslim nurses provided spiritual care intervention to their Muslim patients infrequently and that their own spiritual well-being was positively associated with the frequency of provision of spiritual care interventions. The findings revealed that spiritual well-being was important to those nurses, which has implications for improving the provision of spiritual care intervention. Overall this study provided information that enables nurses, nursing managers, and nursing educators to evaluate the nurses’ provision of various aspects of spiritual care to their Muslim patients. Additionally, this resource allows the identification of spiritual care intervention where nurses might receive training to become competent in providing this type of care and using their faith hand in hand with their medical praxis.

O’Connor, Bonnie B., and David J. Hufford.  “Understanding Folk Medicine.” Healing Logics:Culture and Medicine in Modern Health Belief Systems, edited by Erika Brady, University Press of Colorado, Logan, Utah, 2001, pp. 13–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46nwrq.5.

The first chapter of this book is about folk medicine and the alternative medicines that have been improved to look towards combining them in modern health systems. The aspects of medicine are expanding and the old models of investigation that held these medicines down are now being entwined. As recent research suggests, we base health belief systems off of community-based, ethnicity, and social experiences, and these alternative medicines can serve a stronger base for practitioners to build their praxis. Detailing Folk Medicine, the second  chapter, gives a wider depth from herbalism, food guidelines, and other temperaments that surround holistic health. This persistence to evolve over more than a century compliments the practitioners cultivation and/or experience as what they learned over their careers.

O'Dowd, Emily et al. “Stress, coping, and psychological resilience among physicians.” BMC health services research vol. 18,1 730. 21 Sep. 2018, https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-018-3541-8. This research article examines how physicians experience resilience and stress. This study describes how physicians define resilience, the challenges posed by workplace stressors, and strategies which enable physicians to cope with these stressors. The researchers used a qualitative approach and had 68 semi-structured interviews conducted with Irish physicians. Data were analysed using deductive content-analysis and from these five themes consisting of “The Nature of Resilience,” “Challenges of the Profession,” “Job-related Gratification,” “Resilience Strategies (Protective Practices),” and the final theme “Resilience Strategies (Attitudes)” captured attitudes which protected against stress and burnout. This study found that there is a need for further research on how physicians find mechanisms to cope with the workplace as with holistic care and other medicinal purposes. The need for a practitioner of sound mind, body, and soul to be able to help the patients in need of holistic help themselves is apparent and much needed in the medical community.

OWENS, D. (2017). “Black Women’s Experiences In Slavery And Medicine”. In Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology (pp. 42-72). Athens: University of Georgia Press. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1pwt69x.7. This article focuses on Julia Brown, a black woman decades out of slavery. She details the horror she faced with doctors on the slave plantation and the methods they used on the slaves, no matter if they were pregnant, scarred, or mentally abused. They were told that blacks were inferior and their bodies were used to experiment on and find ways to sicken and to “cure” the bond women in the camp. White southern men entered the medical field and began working on black women’s bodies, making women confront emotional responses in hesitancy to escape, fear of their situations, etcetera. American slavery provided methods to how we do things now in the medical health system (e.g. studies on gynecology birth, growth of slaves, women’s healthcare). Using those horrid experiences, we can find new ways to apply holistic health to care not only for the practitioner but to primarily make sure the patient, especially marginalized women, are supported on all three spectrums - physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Poloma, Margaret M., and Lynette F. Hoelter. “The 'Toronto Blessing': A Holistic Model of Healing.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 37, no. 2, 1998, pp. 257–272. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1387526. This article looks at the national and regional surveys that have included items on healing, which suggest that a significant minority of Americans claim to have experienced a divine or miraculous healing. This ideology helps with bringing in the holistic health of those who are marginalized, allowing for more healthcare practitioners to identify these divine healings and incorporate them more within medical practices. As most are involved within a Pentecostal or charismatic (P/c) approach to Christianity it can be referenced to the 'Toronto Blessing,' a modern revival having its origins at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. These P/c Christians promote a worldview in which the power of God freely moves through and among believers and in which healing is regarded as "supernaturally natural.". With this model and utilizing McGuire's qualitative research on P/c healing as a framework on four types of healing were explored in a sample of 918 Toronto pilgrims. Overall, the results showed that the feedback of others played a role specifically if they were feeling the healing or felt the feelings from others. This article examines how religious practitioners can utilize their faith to help others or direct them on a path that coincides with their view of holistic health.

Riordan, Daniel C. “Interaction Strategies of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Healthcare Practitioners in the Clinical Examination of Patients: Qualitative Study.” BMJ: British Medical Journal, vol. 328,no. 7450, 2004, pp. 1227–1229. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41707771. The objective of this research article is to explore how lesbian, gay, and bisexual healthcare practitioners manage their identity in the clinical examination of patients. Through comprehensive interviews, it examines the personal lives of the practitioners that would not be a part of my senior project. The participants, 16 healthcare professionals in total who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and who are involved in the clinical examination of patients, were present and questioned using methods to help them avoid discrimination. These healthcare professionals engage in a complex interplay of identity management strategies to avoid homophobic abuse but are still able to understand other gay patients and provide care. The training they underwent for homophobia abuse training did not help them but conclusively new laws must be passed to help relieve the tension of medical staff who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. This holistic health does not apply to the patient but the practitioner themselves as they need to reinforce their values and be better allies for patients from the LGBTQ+ community.

Rovers, Martin, et al. “Conclusion: Issues of Touch: An Overall View and Integration.” Touch in the Helping Professions: Research, Practice and Ethics, edited by Martin Rovers et al., University of Ottawa Press, 2017, pp. 237–248. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5vdcvd.17. This article deals with the question of touch and how it integrates within our cultural systems and medical field. When we place the question of touch in a context that applies for the healing of the individual, the application of holistic medicine can be revoked or enacted upon the patient or the practitioner itself. This makes room for touch to be  an important element of a person’s  encounter with another, allowing more bonds to grow. Touch begins a secure relationship and the ideal link between patient and practitioner with check ups on health and especially with chiropractors or other spiritual healing on the body or soul. Whether in the physical or spiritual realm, touch can be made towards talking and relying on the tools available to be integrated. Thus, this makes the use of touch vital for practitioners as their interactions can affect the way the patient heals among different forms of work they perform on them.

Sayles, G. (2017). “Jesus and the challenging gift of the other: An expository article on Mark 7:24–30”. Review & Expositor, 114(1), 110–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0034637316688036. This research article discusses the recollection of Mark 7:24–30, which tells the story of Jesus’ surprising encounter and sharp verbal exchange with a Syrophoenician woman seeking healing for her demon-oppressed daughter. Although with spiritual ties, the woman does represent the otherness in religious, ethnic, status, and gender mannerisms. Jesus’ initial response to her request, expressed in a harsh-sounding parabolic proverb, is resistance and reluctance. This article explores possible reasons for that reluctance and suggests that Jesus initially understood that the reign of God would be realized first among Jews and only later among Gentiles. The woman’s clever response to Jesus, as well as her insistence on the inclusiveness of divine mercy, served to change Jesus’ mind about the order and timing of the fulfillment of God’s rule and reign. With the view of the world and medicine and how we can advance the components that will strengthen holistic medicine and its foundational praxis. Jesus’ change of heart serves as a model for contemporary followers of Jesus who sometimes struggle to receive the challenging gifts of otherness and how different views (especially within the medical field) can better our own faith and praxis.

Singleton, Andrew. “‘Your Faith Has Made You Well’: The Role of Storytelling in the Experience of Miraculous Healing.” Review of Religious Research, vol. 43, no. 2, 2001, pp. 121–138. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3512058. This article talks of the healing within the Christian churches and the sections of the Pentecostal church. Singleton notes that the social practice of the storytelling player was overlooked and their words must be analyzed. Singleton went through a number of oral stories which describe instances of miraculous healing and highlighted how the story activates or allows an event to become a miracle. By how informants fashion their stories and relay the news it gains particular cultural meanings and suppresses others via the depiction of characters who appear in a miraculous healing story. This makes it more divine to honor the person who has performed the act aided by a higher power and/or by faith. The study concludes with an analysis of how the circulation of stories sustains the practice of praying for miraculous healing whilst also being reflective towards a commutative holistic view. A person can have full wellness and also be aided by the teachings from the divine and supernatural which formulates this theory.

Smith, F., Goldacre, M. J., & Lambert, T. W. (2017). “Adverse effects on health and wellbeing of working as a doctor: views of the UK medical graduates of 1974 and 1977 surveyed in 2014”. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 110(5), 198–207. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076817697489. This journal article reports on the adverse effects on health and wellbeing of working as a doctor, as described by senior doctors. Using 4369 UK Graduates from the class of 1974-1977, they were asked to fill questionnaires that only 84.6% (3695/4369) answered. In response to the question ‘Do you feel that working as a doctor has had any adverse effects on your own health or wellbeing?’, 44% of doctors answered ‘yes’. More general practitioners, (47%) than hospital doctors (42%) specified that this was the case. The results found that chronic stress and illness stemming from their work were widely reported by doctors. Recent changes may have alleviated some of these issues, but doctors need to feel less restricted and be more informed to help them be successful with their careers. The matter of stress and tension within a practitioner's praxis and area of work can have profound results, which I will ask for variations in my senior project.

Sorace, Christian. “Communist Party Immunology” Control, edited by Jane Golley et al., ANU Press, Australia, 2017, pp. 99–108. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1sq5tvf.12. This journal article discusses the mission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was to heal the wounded and damaged body of the nation. According to the official narrative, national strength, territorial integrity, economic growth, and social harmony ultimately depend on the vitality of the Party ‘organism’ (jiti 肌体). This ideology is followed by each person being the cell that makes the organism, hence the Party. In 1949, when the Party triumphantly seized state power, Mao soberly wrote: ‘The Communist Party of China is no longer a child or a lad in his teens but has become an adult. When a man reaches old age, he will die; the same is true of a party.’ This theory of life, growth, and death began to be a major point where China from that time up till now represents continual growth. This article ends with stating although the CCP is in remission, the body is still taken care of. By diagnosing ways an organization can be seen as a healthcare system and it allows us to realize and develop how political systems rely on holistic health and how they use medical terms to advance their agenda. This article ultimately reveals much about the health of China’s political world and how those who govern it view it as a product of holistic care.

Spampinato, C., & O’Donnell, E. (2013). “Living Faith in Medicine”. The Linacre Quarterly, 80(1), 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1179/0024363912Z.0000000004. In the midst of classes and clinical work as second-year medical students, the researchers of this editorial found themselves in their future profession. They realized how easy it is to feel consumed by assignments, activities, and leadership roles and to lose sight of how the vocation of medicine could (and should) deepen our faith. Seeking to answer these questions of spiritual nourishment and to find faith in medicine, they embarked on a unique adventure to New York City the week before Christmas to work with the Sisters of Life and support their mission to help pregnant women. Overall, the five days spent in New York City with these different groups spiritually transformed them and they recorded their experiences in the article. It was done with the prayer that each of the readers may share in the grace of the Holy Spirit that they knew surrounded them in their encounters. This editorial offers people of the faith prayer, the contact information of Sisters of Life, and guidance as they help others and be more joyful about their spiritual and personal life as doctors, nurses, and other roles.

Tamir, Orly et al. “Comparing assessment of diabetes-related quality of life between patients and their physicians.” Health and quality of life outcomes vol. 16,1 214. 19 Nov. 2018, doi:10.1186/s12955-018-1040-6. This article discusses health-related quality of life (QoL), which is a comprehensive, multidimensional construct encompassing physical and psychosocial wellbeing. This study examined the quality of life among patients with diabetes in primary care and in multi-disciplinary diabetes clinics. The methods used were based on a questionnaire given before and after the physician visited their patients. This comprised of a collection of health, perception, and the harmony between patient-reported QoL and physician-estimated QoL evaluations. A total of 136 patients and 39 treating physicians were surveyed, and the patient's response rate was 95%. A strong connection was shown between how patients and physicians measured their own current health status, but physicians perceived their patients’ QoL as worse than the QoL assessed by the patients themselves. Studies have also found that primary care physicians were better at assessing their patients’ overall wellbeing, while diabetes specialists were better at assessing their patients’ diabetes-specific QoL. Lastly with longer duration of diabetes found it more difficult for physicians to accurately assess QoL. These results can be used to strengthen the use of holistic care, as these results refer to physicians making reasonable assessments of their patients’ QoL and how long-term diseases increase the difficulty of physicians assessing their patient’s QoL. Essentially, this research article helped with identifying that each patient needs different types of care and methods to fit their need of holistic care.

Thiesbonenkamp-Maag, Julia. “‘I Am Here Not to Repair but See the Person as a Whole’: Pastoral Care Work in German Hospitals.” Emerging Socialities in 21st Century Healthcare, edited by Bernhard Hadolt and Anita Hardon, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2017, pp. 123–128. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5npjsq.11.

This research article focuses on the contribution based on research conducted on chaplains doing pastoral care in German hospitals. The research team consisted of two theologians (Fabian Kliesch, Thorsten Moos), one biologist specializing in medical ethics (Simone Ehm), and one medical anthropologist (Julia Thiesbonenkamp-Maag). The study is part of an ongoing research project by the Protestant Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Heidelberg that involves conducting expert interviews with hospital chaplains and carrying out participant observation in different hospitals. From their research and extensive expert interviews, they found that hospital chaplains relate to patients, their kin, and hospital staff in a manner that is informed by an ethos of care. It is indeed that caring is more than what it seems and that chaplains recognize both the spiritual needs of people and the necessity of care as witnessing. They essentially match the idea and the praxis of expressing holistic care.

Thomas, Hayley et al. “Definition of whole person care in general practice in the English language literature: a systematic review.” BMJ open vol. 8,12 e023758. 14 Dec. 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6303638/. This article looks at how the importance of 'whole person' or 'holistic' care is widely recognised, particularly with an increase in death varied from more than just physical and mental problems. This approach to care is a defining feature of general practice. However, as its precise meaning remains ambiguous, this article aimed to determine how the term 'whole person' care is understood by general practitioners (GPs) and whether it is synonymous with '[w]holistic' and 'biopsychosocial' care. Using a systematic literature review, fifty publications were included from 4297 non-duplicate records. From this information, six themes were identified: a multidimensional, integrated approach; the importance of the therapeutic relationship; acknowledging doctors' humanity; recognising patients' individual personhood; viewing health as more than absence of disease; and employing a range of treatment modalities. Ideally, whole person care, holistic wellness, biopsychosocial, and other terms are part of a multidimensional approach to care and incorporate additional elements described above. Conclusively, the article found that holistic represents the closest representation of the basis for general practice. Furthermore, research is required to clarify the representativeness of the findings and the relative importance GPs assigned to each theme, a topic of discussion in my senior project.

Tucker, J. B. (2008). “The Body’s Own Bioweapons”. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 64(1), 16–22.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.2968/064001006#articleCitationDownloadConta iner. This research article discusses the next biothreat stemming from the human body. These are bioregulators, a class of natural chemicals in the human body that control vital functions such as heart rate, respiration, temperature, sleep, mood, and the immune response. Examples of these molecules include angiotensin, an agent that regulates the body’s water balance and that raises blood pressure and vasopressin. These biopowers can potentially inspire new medicinal treatments, as the pharmaceutical industry is developing new drugs based on bioregulators to correct physiological imbalances caused by disease. However, if not given in small doses, these drugs can be toxic, as past research shows death in animals exposed to these biothreats. Nonetheless, bioregulators can be used for good and evil similar to holistic medicine as it can be used to prevent, restrain, help, and or hurt the body. Conclusively, to prevent the misuse of these natural body chemicals for hostile purposes, scientists and national security analysts must understand the nature of bioregulators through a holistic approach.

White, Lacie, and Christine McPherson. “Touch(Ed) in Palliative Care Nursing: Moving with/in An Uncertain Practice.” Touch in the Helping Professions: Research, Practice and Ethics, edited by Martin Rovers et al., University of Ottawa Press, 2017, pp. 177–194. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv5vdcvd.14. In this chapter, the authors explored touch as an aesthetic, embodied, and unclear act in nurse-patient interactions that can foster connection and provide comfort. They used their research with palliative medicine to examine patients providing care to patients and those around them who have problems associated with the patient's life-threatening illness. Touch as an embodied and aesthetic practice in nursing care is only one of many interactions, such as mindfulness, teachings, and storytelling. These suggestions will be used as methods that can support cultivating approaches to touch. To explore theoretical perspectives, the authors reference two stories that were written in five years’ time: “With Mary, With Jerry,” and “With Jake and Family”. Conclusively nurses learn to properly touch and be helped existentially, emotionally, and physically through time spent on skills of embodiment. Mindfulness and storytelling are two such practices that can foster aesthetic and embodied knowledge. By considering (dis)comforts with touching in nursing practices, we begin to find new ways to help one another. This sense of touch aligns with the work I would want to do in holistic medicine within the senior project involving body movement.

Whiting, Demian. “Inappropriate Attitudes, Fitness to Practice and the Challenges Facing Medical Educators.” Journal of Medical Ethics, vol. 33, no. 11, 2007, pp. 667–670. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27719979.The author outlines a number of reasons why morally inappropriate attitudes may give rise to concerns about fitness to practice medicine. This is important within the field of chiropractics because a holistic practice won’t be done if it doesn’t reflect benefits for the mind, body, and soul. By being inappropriate, you are not conducting yourself as a way to help others be treated. Demian argues that inappropriate attitudes may raise such concerns because they can lead to harmful behaviours and  these behaviors can be detrimental to the care of the patient. He also outlines some of the challenges that the cultivation and assessment of attitudes has on developing practices that train practitioners to have correct attitudes in the workplace. It is vital to place more emphasis on the patient being first within a holistic practice once the practitioner is aligned holistically and displays a welcoming energy to their patient. I will use these as questions for my selection of healthcare practitioners to get their view on how they take care of themselves before taking care of other patients.

Yeung, D., & Martin, M. (2013).” Spiritual Fitness Definition and Key Constructs”. In Spiritual Fitness and Resilience: A Review of Relevant Constructs, Measures, and Links to Well-Being (pp. 5-28). RAND Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt5hhv6n.8. The importance of fitness domains, such as physical and psychological fitness, is intuitive, but it is not immediately apparent how spiritual fitness may be beneficial for Air Force readiness and resilience. For many people, spiritual beliefs influence their outlook on the world tremendously, offering solace in turbulent times, and provide support from a like-minded community. These beliefs may contribute to resilience and wellbeing and result in improved force readiness and performance. This report discusses spiritual fitness as defined by the Air Force and as conceptualized by the empirical literature by identifying key constructs of spiritual fitness and their relationship to wellbeing and resilience. Conclusively, this highlights the  importance of how successful spiritual interventions can target spiritual fitness constructs.

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