| dc.description.abstract | Spiritual care and health work are twins, as far as the missionary work is
concerned with the Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern Nigeria. The hospital in
Jengre is known far and near as a result of the work of the western missionary J. J.
Hyde and his wife who was a nurse. The hospital has at some point in time, been the
major health facility for the people around the community. Spiritual work and
healthcare have been carried along, side by side. With the advancement of healthcare,
there is a need for professional spiritual care giving in the hospital.
In Jengre SDA Hospital, the work of the spiritual caregiver known as a
chaplain, has been reduced to that of prayer and devotion thereby, making it just a
“fill in the gap” ministry. There is no institutionalized chaplaincy, all aspects of care,
have been left to the proficiency of the medical personnel. There is the need to
measure the impact, professional health care Chaplains play in whole-person care and
the recovery of patients in the hospital.To arrive at the findings of the research, a range of literature on professional
healthcare chaplaincy was consulted which gave rise to the qualitative approach in the
research. An experiment was carried out over four months with a research population
of 50 patients whose diagnosis turned out in the majority, to be organ-related
ailments. The literature gathered provided a range of views and understanding about
the professional practice of healthcare chaplaincy, its origin, development, and
achievement over the years.
The experiment was possible because ten volunteers were trained with
professional knowledge of healthcare chaplaincy to help in the experimental
procedures. Five were selected after a month’s training out of the ten who showed
good qualities of a chaplain. These were selected for the major work as volunteer
Chaplains in the experiment process. For four months, the trained volunteers worked
with different patients who were grouped randomly into two, classified as (group X1),
treatment group, and (group X2) control group. Data were collected through two types
of scorecards which have fifteen items on each, to guide the volunteers.
The chaplains assessed the patients in both groups from the volunteer
chaplain’s score care card, as well as the patients’ response to the services of the
chaplains on the patients’ response card. This provides the researcher with a tool for
effective data gathering, and a simple percentage data finding with a yes, or no, as a
response to each item on the scorecard.
After the training of the volunteers that lasted for six weeks helping them to
acquire basic healthcare chaplaincy skills for bedside ministry, the volunteer
chaplains went into work with the two groups X1 (treatment group), and X2 (control
group). One of the groups X1(treatment) was provided with adequate spiritual care
from the volunteers, while group X2(control), was provided with, medical care alone.At the end of the study after four months, the study shows that patients who were
cared for, both by the trained chaplains, and medical personnel, recover faster than
those in group X2 who were cared for by the medical personnel alone. This further
shows that professional healthcare chaplains play a vital role in the recovery nature of
patients in Jengre SDA Hospital.
It is important to provide a holistic approach to healthcare in Jengre SDA
Hospital. There are occasions where doctors cannot effectively administer a treatment
that will yield results as some phenomenon health challenges, may defy medical
knowledge and experiment. The need for a trained or professional spiritual caregiver
(chaplain) in the hospital is urgent and important, to provide whole-person care to
patients in the hospital. The care of the mind and the spirit, go a long way in helping
in emotional, and physical recovery. | en_US |
