Use of supplication in pediatric emergency departments
Article information
Being in a pediatric emergency department (PED) is a challenge not only for children but also for their parents. The parents present various psychological responses to the stressful experiences and use different coping styles in PEDs. Supplication (prayer), a religious coping strategy, is frequently used by many children and their parents. Supplication is the human heart’s conversation with God (e.g., Allah) and seeking his blessing and help (1). Herein, we discuss the use of supplication by parents in PEDs to attract attention to the importance of religious coping and spirituality, unfamiliar to many health professionals working in PEDs.
Among parent-written prayers in the chapel notebook at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the prayers to gain control of the children’s illnesses were more common than those to seek God's comfort (2). However, the former writing pattern decreased over time while the latter pattern tended to decrease without statistical significance. As per the cited study, the coping strategies to gain control include pleading to, deferring to, collaborating with, or actively surrendering to God, while the other strategy was seeking spiritual support or connection (2).
There are sparse studies about the use of supplication by parents in PEDs. Losier et al. (3) reported that the most commonly used complementary and alternative medicine therapies used were homeopathy (20%), prayer/spiritual approaches (19.7%), and massage therapy (16.7%) in a PED in Nova Scotia, Canada. The most commonly used complementary and alternative medicine therapies were folk remedies/home remedies (59%), herbs (41%), prayer healing (14%), and massage therapy (10%) in a PED in Michigan, United States (4).
In our clinical practice, many parents of ill children in the PED pray to God for their children’s health. Most families believe that the best results are achieved when traditional medicine and supplication are used together. Many praying parents find peace, comfort, confidence, and consolation mentally and psycho-spiritually because they believe in the following spiritual or religious teachings. For some people, illness is an important treasure, a precious gift from God. Illnesses of innocent children are forms of exercise, training, vaccination, and a divine upbringing to make their delicate bodies resistant to the turmoil of the world in the future. Illnesses are like vaccinations that carry many wisdoms regarding the children's worldly lives, and will be the means for their spiritual lives, the maturation of their lives, and spiritual progress in the future or in the afterlife (5).
In conclusion, supplication is frequently used by parents of sick children in many cultures because of its psycho-spiritual and mental benefits. However, limited studies have reported about the use of supplication by parents in PEDs. Therefore, I recommend that comprehensive studies should be performed in communities with different cultures and beliefs about the effects of supplication on children and parents in PEDs. The studies will guide health caregivers in clinical practice and fill the gap in the literature.
Notes
Author contributions
All the work was done by Çaksen H.
Conflicts of interest
No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Funding sources
No funding source relevant to this article was reported.