THE EXERCISE OF HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY

REFLECTIONS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY, SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH

Abstract

This essay is based on the understanding of the interaction of hospital chaplaincy with an expanded concept of health, in which full health is taken beyond the mere absence of disease, encompassing well-being and integral promotion of human care. As a research topic in philosophy of health, includes the analysis of the activities of the hospital chaplaincy, which is dedicated to enhancing the positive influence of spiritual care to health users, through practices such as integrated meditation, prayer and thoughts aimed at the good, providing an integrative approach to these people, in order to contribute to their recovery and coping with the condition of vulnerability in which they find themselves in the face of the threat to their lives or their own finitude. From the point of view of a philosophy of health, this essay reflects on hospital chaplaincy, considering the necessary inter/transdisciplinarity in the thinking and exercise of care - medicine as a science and its practice.