PHI-413V Ethical and Spiritual Decision-Making in Health Care Weekly Assignments

PHI-413V Ethical and Spiritual Decision-Making in Health Care Weekly Assignments

PHI-413V Ethical and Spiritual Decision-Making in Health Care Weekly Assignments

Individuals, including nurses as healthcare providers, have different worldviews on issues that impact the lives of human beings and their relationships. Worldviews denote a set of beliefs and perspectives on a host of issues around the world like the existence of human beings and the ultimate reality. Christians have a different worldview compared to others while worldviews like postmodern relativism propose diverse approaches to healthcare issues (Bogue & Hogan, 2020). The purpose of this paper is to offer a reflection concerning different aspects that define worldviews; from the nature of spirituality to personal attributions about ultimate reality and the purpose of my existence.

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Christian Perspective on Nature of Spirituality in Contrast to Postmodern Relativism

Christianity offers a religious perspective about the nature of ethics and spirituality. Christianity advances that spirituality is a discovery of the meaning of life through a personal and innate relationship with God based on biblical accounts and narrative. Spirituality is dynamic and intrinsic component of humanity through which individuals seek and attain ultimate meaning, purpose and transcendence. Therefore, the Christian perspective develops a belief system based on biblical teachings to guide individuals on issues related to spiritualty and ethics (Domingo & Domingo, 2020). The Christian perspective advances that God is the source of ethical conduct and implores people to live the ethical values presented in the bible as a component of attaining spirituality in their lives.

God expects Christians through teachings of Jesus to embrace ethical aspects like the story of the Good Samaritan among other accounts that demonstrate doing good and loving all irrespective of the social background and diversity. Christianity encourages people to offer assistance to others as a way of developing intrinsic relationship with God and attaining the values of good humanity on earth. Ethical values should always form the basis of one’s decisions in their work, especially in healthcare settings for providers like nurses. The Christian perspective about the nature of spirituality and ethics is essential as it allows providers to exercise objective morality. Therefore, truth is objective and there are values concerning what is good and bad and the decisions that one makes must be ethical

Contrasted to Christian perspective on ethics and spirituality is the concept of postmodern relativism. At the core of this perspective is that there is no absolute truth that forms the basis of ethics in human beings. Postmodern relativism argues that all opinions and beliefs are subjective and based on one’s perception of issues in life (Boghossian, 2020). The perspective takes a cynical look at reality from wellness and disease. The postmodern relativism questions logic and the scientific evidence that informs the belief in God, His teaching and the spirituality that people talk about (Filonenko et al., 2020). Postmodern relativism requires providers to be considerate of the patients’ beliefs and their influence when suggesting certain treatment interventions and plans of care. Proponents of postmodern relativism are focused more on outcomes as opposed to morality.

Scientism and Arguments Against It

At the heart of scientism are efforts aimed at extending scientific perspectives, ideas and attitudes as well as practices and methods to address human life and concerns. Scientism advances that scientific knowledge and ideas are the main ways for man to solve his problems and anything without proof emanating from science does not amount to knowledge. Therefore, knowledge comes from science and scientific endeavors.

Scientism advances that most claims about knowledge and truth are false since they have no scientific proofs or evidence (Burnett, 2020). Imperatively, they are mere opinions and statements by individuals who lack substantial proofs to advance their perspectives. Accordingly, any truth and knowledge should be supported by evidence and not mere assumptions based on personal perspectives and feelings. Scientism opposes Christian perspective on knowledge, ethics and nature of spirituality as emanating from God. Rather, it presupposes that God does not exist and all truth emanating from him are mere opinions and feelings advanced by individual based on their experiences.

While some of the evidence advanced by proponents of scientism were proved as realities, this perspective has serious opposition and arguments against it. It is important to discuss two of these arguments. Firstly, scientism has failed to prove the free will of human beings. The science of neurology and neurosurgery has failed to account for this phenomenon in human beings. Scientism has failed to account for different physiological processes and events that occur in human life concerning aspects of morality, free will and the right and wrong paradigm. Secondly, scientism relies on replicability of its observations as it does not come up with new or novel insights about phenomena in the world (Hall, 2018). scientific experiments are always replicated with similar outcomes without any significant variations. The implication is that this replication does not lead to new knowledge as scientism claims. Science is limited in its devices in examining different aspects of human behaviors and is self-refuting as it does not root for scrutiny from other disciplines. 

Personal Perspective and Worldview

My worldview is based on the Christian perspective which advances that God is the supreme being and offers direction on all things that happen to human beings. Based on this worldview and perspective, healthcare providers can form their application and understanding of diverse concept as demonstrated here.  

a). Ultimate Reality

Ultimate reality to me is about placing things and issues in the world based on God’s plan and purpose. The ultimate reality arises from the realization that the world is created by God for the benefit of man. Therefore, the ultimate reality is to accept one’s living and the current situation in the world while acknowledging that God is in control. The decisions that I make and their effects reflect the reality, especially as a healthcare worker who offers support to diverse patients with different health conditions. The ultimate reality is to attain a unification of one’s physical nature and their spiritualty so that they can understand the purpose of their living (Cristiano, 2020). Living in reality requires all to appreciate that they have both spiritual and physical aspects that impact their decisions and actions in life. God created human beings to fellowship with Him and gave them principles to guide their lives. Therefore, one can determine what is wrong and right while understanding all issues in the world.

b). Nature of the Universe

The nature of the universe entails two critical aspects, humanity and all things that exist in the world; either through his influence or created by God. The universe exists because of the space and time and their content including the planets, galaxies and other mysteries beyond man’s understanding. The physical phenomenon that exists in the world offers a uniform cover of this nature and demonstrates that man uses space to attain meaning and purpose.

Secondly, the existing mysteries in the universe implore man to develop a spiritual realm that allows him to attain a better understanding of these aspects, especially in relation to God and His ultimate purpose for humanity and all the creation. As such, the universe shows the intrinsic and mysterious nature of God who calls on man to focus on Him in all things that they do for fulfillment and attainment of better outcomes in life. This means that as a healthcare provider, I must seek deepened understanding of the different patients that I handle to serve them better.

c). Human Being

The human being is an important creature based on the biblical account of God’s creation. God created man in his image based on the concept of “Imago Dei.” The implication is that human beings share in God’s creation and are procreators as commanded by God. Therefore, they have inherent value and dignity and should be respected irrespective of their social and economic conditions or background. Human beings have close fellowship with God and deserve to be treated equally as all are equal before His eyes. I believe that human beings are the purpose why we exist in the world. Individuals won’t exist if not for the benefit of another person. Human beings are created to show and share love with others as God has loved them. The implication human beings have both physical and spiritual attributes and nature to develop intimacy with God and fellow humans as a way of showing and practicing love. 

d). Knowledge

Knowledge denote the complex ideas, perspectives and opinions and facts concerning reality and the world as examined and understood by people. Knowledge can be abstract ides learned or acquired formally in educational institutions or informally through experiences. Individuals gain knowledge gradually and use it to explore new areas and attain more understanding and perspectives on a host of issues that impact humanity (Boghossian, 2020). Therefore, exploration of new ideas and proof of what is known is endless because of the quest for better living and development of solutions affecting humanity. Imperatively, knowledge comes from both physical and divine sources since people can attain it through exploration and invention or experiences.

e). Basis of Ethics

Ethics are moral principles governing and guiding the conduct and behaviors of an individual (Cook, 2020). The basis of my ethics is my Christian values and upbringing through which I have learned the different values and ethics for effective living in the world. As a healthcare worker, my professional code of conduct and the need to serve people form critical perspectives on my ethical principles and values. I believe that ethical values are critical for provision of quality care in nursing practice. My conscience forms the primary reaction to situations that encounter in my practice. Having the right will, honesty and morale are essential for effective ethical conduct. I believe that ethics should be the center of quality care and allow one to offer quality care through effective patient interactions.

f). Purpose of my Existence

As a human being, I believe that the purpose or goal of my existence is serving to other through my interactions with them and my activities as a health care provider. Through helping others based on call as a nurse allows me to serve others as my highest and most important purpose in this world. The adage “you must leave the world a better place than you found it” is a core part of my purpose in this world. I believe that all have a purpose that they should seek through meaningful engagement at a personal level.

Conclusion

The paper demonstrates the need for one to understand different worldviews aside from their own to offer quality care through effective interactions with patients. The essay shows a reflection of my views concerning different aspects like human beings and purpose of existence. As a healthcare provider, these components are important in formation of worldviews that help attain better care and effective care plans for patients from diverse backgrounds.

References

Bogue, D. W., & Hogan, M. (2020). Foundation issues in Christian spirituality and ethics. GCU

            Digital Resources. Web.

Boghossian, P. (2020). What the Sokal Hoax Outght to Teach Us: The pernicious consequences

and internal contradictions of postmodernist’ relativism. In Arguing About Knowledge (pp. 553-560). Routledge.

Burnett, T. (2020). What is scientism? American Association for the Advancement of Science

(AAAS). https://www.aaas.org/programs/dialogue-science-ethics-and-religion/what-scientism

Cristiano, A. (2020). 4.5 AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Ultimate Reality. Ultimate Reality and

Meaning, 36(3-4), 127-143. DOI:10.3138/uram.36.3-4.127

Cook, B. J. (2020). Restraining the Unitary Executive: A Regime Ethics Basis for Administrator

Defiance of Presidential Directives. Public Integrity, 22(4), 305-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2019.1619441

Domingo Osle, M., & Domingo, R. (2020). Nursing and spirituality: A discussion paper on ‐

intertwining metaparadigms. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(6): 1268-1274 https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13076

Filonenko, L., Furdui, S., Maksymchuk, B., Demchenko, I., Vysochan, L., Pletenicka, L., … &

Maksymchuk, I. (2020). Historical aspects of forming the value attitude to human being

at pupils of sports boarding schools. Scientific Journal of National Pedagogical

Dragomanov University. Series 15. Scientific and pedagogical problems of physical culture (physical culture and sports), (1 (121)), 107-112

Hall, S. (April 5, 2018). The philosophical case against scientism. Quillette.

            https://quillette.com/2018/04/05/philosophical-case-scientism/ 

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Based on the required topic Resources, write a reflection about worldview and respond to following:

In 250-300 words, explain the Christian perspective of the nature of spirituality and ethics in contrast to the perspective of postmodern relativism within health care.
In 250-300 words, explain what scientism is and describe two of the main arguments against it.