Theology and the research on Spirituality and Health: a pilot study among health professionals and chaplains

In Brazil the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and health has been mainly studied by medicine and nursing. There are few studies on the behavior and beliefs of health professionals and chaplains. This study aims to find out how the dimension of religiosity/spirituality is understood and integrated (or not) by health professionals and chaplains in health care in a hospital in Curitiba-PR. The research method is a quantitative survey, cross-sectional and descriptive. The applied instrument consists of a questionnaire with 35 closed questions and 1 semi-structured question. Participants are n = 100 health professionals: nurses, technicians and nursing assistants, psychologists, social workers, physiotherapists, phonoaudiologists, pharmacists, clinical nutritionists and chaplains. The results indicate that most of these professionals believe that religiosity/spirituality affects health outcomes and they believe it is important to be aware of this relationship. However, only few of them report that they integrate spirituality into their care practice as they lack (in) formation on these issues. We conclude that theology can contribute to a theoretical reflection on spirituality and health, and also to the training of these professionals about the subject, in collaboration with other disciplines.