Healthcare and Religious Beliefs
In the healthcare organizations, the medical staff must conform to accepted standards of conduct. Physicians must make ethical decisions regarding healthcare. They must also take spiritual and religious beliefs into consideration for treatment of the patients. Spiritual beliefs may help the healing process and spiritual beliefs can also hinder the healing process (Patients’ Religious and Spiritual Lives). “The Joint Council for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has recognized the influence of spirituality on hospitalized patients by requiring a hospital chaplain or access to pastoral services in the standards for accreditation of all hospitals” (JCAHO, 1999). For the Department of Defense, Air Force medical treatment facilities (MTF) the family planning services provided and sterilization through the direct or purchased care system. Medical personnel who, for moral or ethical, religious or professional grounds, object to providing family planning services need not perform or assist in such procedures unless their refusal poses life-threatening risks to the patient (AFI 44-119, 2001).
The MTF Commander or designee at each MTF establishes specific guidance on
informed consent, consistent with any relevant state law and reasonable standards of medical practice. Although local policy need not list all procedures or itemize what disclosures must be made in specific types of cases, it must provide a method for providers in the MTF to obtain answers to specific informed consent questions such as extent of disclosures or whether to use written consent forms (AFI 44-119, 2001).
Providers shall consult the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) and the regional Medical Legal Consultant (MLC) to determine any pecu ...