Spirituality can meet science on the road to healing, health-care panelists say

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This article was published 08/04/2024 (606 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“As a Muslim, I am reminded daily that I answer to Allah for how I treat my patients. It is part of my identity.”

That’s how Dr. Rizqa Sulaiman-Baradien, a medical geneticist and assistant professor at the University of Manitoba, answered the question of how faith influences her work as a health-care professional.

Sulaiman-Baradien was one of five panelists addressing the topic of faith and medicine at a Ramadan iftar at the university’s Bannatyne campus Friday.

The event, which brought together a mix of Muslim and non-Muslim medical students, faculty and others, was the first ever Ramadan iftar organized by students from the U of M’s Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

For panellist Dr. Natasha Ali, a registered psychologist who also works as a Muslim spiritual care provider at the U of M, her faith gives her a framework for engaging patients.

Noting that Islam sees humans as body (jism), soul (nafs) and spirit (ruh), she said all three “need to be addressed for healing. If we only focus on the body, we missing a big part of what it means to be a human being… spirituality is an important component of health.”

Ali went on to say there’s a lot of research showing how faith can help “mitigate psychological problems,” and that ignoring the spiritual dimension “can be very harmful for patients.”

Dr. Faisal Siddiqui, a critical-care physician at Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface Hospital, and an assistant professor in the departments of internal medicine and anesthesia, pain and perioperative medicine, said that for him spirituality “is an essential part of health care.”

“My own spirituality helps me to help patients,” he said, adding when faced with a challenging medical situation “I will pray and ask God to hear me, provide me with the ability to do the right thing… I always ask God for help.”

While agreeing that faith is an important part of health care, the three panellists noted medical professionals need to ensure they don’t see their faith as the only true one. “We need to avoid exclusivism,” Ali said.

“We need to honour people where they are, those with faith or no faith,” Siddiqui said, noting Islam is about loving and caring for others. “I want to take good care of all my patients like they were my own family.”

“We have to be careful not to impose our beliefs on patients,” Sulaiman-Baradien added. “We have to respect their autonomy.”

Also speaking at the iftar were Doug Koop, a spiritual health practitioner at Health Sciences Centre and elder Gerry Shingoose, a member of the Anishinaabe Nation.

Koop noted that while religious affiliation is declining in Canada today, “many people still claim some sort of spirituality.” His role as a spiritual care provider is to discover what that faith might be.

At the same time, he needs to “acknowledge my own soul and tradition… the deeper I dive into my own faith, the better I am able to view and understand the beliefs of others.”

Shingoose, a residential school survivor, noted that Indigenous people also believe in the importance of mind, body and spirit. By reconnecting with her Indigenous roots, she was able to deal with the trauma of residential school and discover “a holistic way of being.”

Modern medicine, she said “tends to focus on one aspect, the physical. The others are forgotten,” which has a detrimental affect on Indigenous people, since they go to for care “as whole beings.”

Students Heba Elgubtan, MacKenzie Alexiuk and Haley Farion organized the event.

“It’s unbelievable how much spirituality and medicine intersect,” said Alexiuk. “The problem is the lack of connection between them in modern medicine that leads to worse health outcomes.”

Elgubtan added, “Faith is important to my identity as a Muslim. But faith isn’t brought up much in our training. Through this event, we want to let students know it is OK to bring their faith into their studies.”

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