ABSTRACT
Peoples religious or spiritual beliefs do affect how they experience various maladies. Scientific studies to determine the role of spirituality in health started to emerge from the mid-twentieth-century medical community, and the results of many of these studies appeared in peer-reviewed journals. Many of the scientific studies reported in the medical literature attests to the importance of the spiritual dimension in dealing with illness, dying, and death. A patient-centered, whole-person care approach to health care involves addressing issues and concerns that, in addition to those of the physical nature, are important to patients during illness and dying. The Institute for Spirituality in Health of Shawnee Mission Medical Center (SMMC) was founded in 2002 to promote the integration of spirituality into the provision of health care. Research into the relationship between spirituality and physical and mental health must continue.
