SHU Explores Effect of Spirituality on Health Care

Participants say mindfulness and self-care are key to well-being

Sacred Heart University recently gathered students, faculty and area professionals to explore the positive connection between spirituality and health care during the University’s first Conversation in Health Care.

Sponsored by SHU’s Dr. Susan L. Davis, R.N., and Richard J. Henley College of Nursing (DHCON) and the College of Health Professions (CHP), the convocation is expected to be an annual event. This year’s focus on spirituality dovetails with both colleges’ emphasis on a patient-centered protocol and recent research into the benefit of spirituality and self-care to the patient and practitioner.

“We teach nurses to look at spirituality in patient care and we teach them to use mindfulness when caring for patients,” said Susan Penque, DHCON clinical associate professor. “We teach them to practice mindfulness before they open the door to the patient’s room so they may be present for the patient.”  

Convocation participants spent the morning in the SHU Center for Healthcare Education defining the relationship between spirituality and health and determining how integrating the two enhances the medical practice and the patient’s comfort and well-being. Speakers touched on topics from music therapy to nutrition and their effects on mind, body and spirit.

A panel discussion, “What is the Relationship Between Spirituality and Health?” featured Danny Schieffler, SHU’s Russian Orthodox chaplain and master of health administration program director; Sara Smith, Protestant chaplain; Shim Bo, Buddhist chaplain; Suzanne Marmo, associate professor of social work, and Maja Lokaj, an undergraduate psychology student, peer ministry team member and campus meditation facilitator.

“I ask people to tell me their story. If a part of their soul muscle is being activated, it will be in their story,” Smith told the group. “It’s really all about connection. No one can live on an island—spiritually, emotionally, psychologically or, I think, physically. To me, it is about people.”

Between main speakers’ presentations, faculty members led participants in brief sessions to experience firsthand the healing strategies that move beyond typical textbook techniques. Penque coordinated a mindfulness meditation in self-kindness, and another professor demonstrated therapeutic touch.

“When I think of spirituality in health care, it’s the connection we make with other people,” said Diana Veneri, associate professor in the physical therapy department. A certified yoga instructor for 15 years, she led a five-minute yoga practice and guided small groups of students in discussing health-related case studies.

The day was a natural extension of SHU’s Catholic tradition, as well as CHP’s and DHCON’s incorporation of mindful meditation into their programs. Research shows that nursing students face more stress than typical college students due to their rigorous workload and demanding clinical rotations. Their stress levels often increase when they graduate and enter the workforce.

Christine Douville, a clinical assistant professor, who teaches mindful meditation in her health and wellness course to address stress, researched the practice with fellow professor Elizabeth Saska and 2022 graduate Halle Boucher. They presented their findings to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing last year.

Faculty, who are veteran health care practitioners, shared stories of how spirituality has impacted their careers. Penque recalled a time when she sat with the family of a man undergoing open heart surgery.

“We prayed,” she said, “and it was a beautiful connection. There was an immediate sense of a higher being at work in them.”

Veneri remembered a new mother who was a paraplegic because she suffered a spinal nerve block during labor and delivery. Veneri had entered the room planning to complete a 30-minute physical therapy session, but the patient hadn’t been able to hold her newborn and was overwhelmed with emotion.

“The woman fell to pieces,” she told the group. “I stopped and said, ‘Can I hold your hand and just breathe with you?’ I didn’t make any promises. I just needed to listen to her.”

Next year’s topic will be palliative care.

Pictured: from left are Fr. Danny Schieffler, Rev. Sara Smith, the Venerable Shim Bo, Professor Suzanne Marmo-Roman and Maja Lokaj.