Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare

The relationship between spirituality and healthcare is historical, intellectual and practical, and it has now emerged as a significant field in health research, healthcare policy and clinical practice and training. Understanding health and wellbeing requires addressing spiritual and existential issues, and healthcare is therefore challenged to respond to the ways spirituality is experienced and expressed in illness, suffering, healing and loss. If healthcare has compassionate regard for the humanity of those it serves, it is faced with questions about how it understands and interprets spirituality, what resources it should make available and how these are organised, and the ways in which spirituality shapes and informs the purpose and practice of healthcare? These questions are the basis for this resource, which presents a coherent field of enquiry, discussion and debate that is interdisciplinary, international and vibrant.

There is a growing corpus of articles in medical and healthcare journals on spirituality in addition to a wide range of literature, but there has been no attempt so far to publish a standard text on this subject. Spirituality in Healthcare is an authoritative reference on the subject providing unequalled coverage, critical depth and an integrated source of key topics. Divided into six sections including practice, research, policy and training, the project brings together international contributions from scholars in the field to provide a unique and stimulating resource.


About the Author

Mark Cobb, Clinical Director and Senior Chaplain, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK, Christina Puchalski, Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences, The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Director, The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish), USA, Bruce Rumbold, Director, Palliative Care Unit, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Australia
Mark Cobb is a Senior Chaplain and a Clinical Director at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and holds honorary academic posts at the University of Sheffield and the University of Liverpool. He has a multidisciplinary education across science and the humanities and has experience working in the community, voluntary and acute health sectors.
Christina M. Puchalski is founding Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWish) in Washington, D.C. and a Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences at The George Washington University. Dr. Puchalski is a pioneer and leader in the movement to integrate spirituality into healthcare in both the clinical setting and in medical education. Her work continues to break ground in the clinical, academic, and pastoral understanding of spiritual care as an essential element of healthcare. She is an active clinician, board certified in Internal Medicine and Palliative Care. Her accolades include the 2009 George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Award and 2011 Outstanding Colleague Award from the National Association of Catholic Chaplains. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is also a member of the contemplative Carmelite lay community. Dr. Puchalski has authored many publications and been featured in numerous print and television media.
Bruce Rumbold is Director of the Palliative Care Unit at La Trobe University, where his responsibilities include coordinating health promoting palliative care and spiritual care academic programs alongside developing public health approaches to end of life care. His multidisciplinary interests are supported by postgraduate qualifications in physics, practical theology and health social science. Prior to joining La Trobe he was from 1986-2002 foundation professor of pastoral studies at Whitley College, an affiliated teaching institution of the Melbourne College of Divinity. Social determinants of end of life experience, and spiritual care, are the particular focus of his current wor