Rehabilitation medical professionals' perceptions on spirituality and health

Rehabilitation encompasses addressing the spiritual beliefs and issues as one of its components. Though its importance is known, still it has been inadequately addressed in rehabilitation settings due to certain barriers. The purpose of this study was to identify these barriers and understand the perceptions of rehab professionals in order to inculcate a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual model of care. In this cross sectional study, 35 rehabilitation medical professionals completed a questionnaire assessing their opinion about religion, spirituality and its inclusion in clinical practice & medical education. The frequency and proportions were calculated for its individual domains. It was found that most rehabilitation professionals understand the importance of addressing spiritual issues of patients but lack its feasibility in clinical practice due to multiple barriers mainly due to lack of time, training, knowledge, fear of imposing religious beliefs and failing to differentiate between religion and spirituality. This can be addressed by proper training and sensitization during medical education.