Dr. Robert Klitzman wrote a guest blog on the New York Times about the intersection of prayer, faith and doctors. This is a topic of particular interest to me, as my Master's thesis was on how personal beliefs impact how nurses communicate with patients. Dr. Klitzman says he does not think physicians need to be religious, but that they do need to realize how important religious beliefs may be to their patient. Physicians need to be aware of how personal beliefs can motivate and encourage patients and be able to pick up on it.
You can find the article here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/prayer-faith-and-doctors/. A spirited discussion follows about the rationality of science, evidence-based medicine and religion. But I think the key thing to take away for patient-physician communication is that a doctor who realizes the importance of his or her patient's religious beliefs can be a great comfort to the patient.
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