What no hospital in the country ever dreamt of doing, the charitable Bhaktivedanta Hospital, located in the city's suburbs did it with a candid yet lucid approach. Last week, more than 60 nursing heads from various hospitals around the city were exposed to the first-of-its-kind spiritual workshop that was organized by the Department of Spiritual Care of the hospital.

The workshop, which until now was confined only to the nurses of the hospital, was doled out on a large scale to about 60 nursing heads comprising mainly of nursing superintendents, assistant nursing superintendents, heads of nursing staff, matrons, sister-tutors, principals and vice principals of nursing colleges, et al of various hospitals from around the city. Representatives from prominent hospitals, namely JJ Hospital, Jaslok Hospital, Nair Hospital, KEM Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Bhagwati Hospital were present to get a hands-on training on the unique subject.

The one-day workshop titled, 'Emerging scenario of spiritual nursing in a hospital setup' covered numerous sessions and provided demonstrations and hands-on training on subjects including; Introduction to spiritual nursing care, stress management in hospital staff, ethical responsibilities in the medical fraternity and emotional care in hospitals.

According to Dr. V.G. Shanbhag, co-ordinator of the workshop and trustee of the hospital, the concept of imparting spiritual care to patients, which ideally should be adopted by all hospital's is not being practiced anywhere. "Even the WHO guidelines state that apart from physical and mental well-being of the patient, physicians should cater to the spiritual well-being of the patient. But such a practice could hardly be found anywhere", he argued. "Organizing such workshops would help to dissipate the ideology and importance of spiritual care", he said.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr. Ajay Sankhe, Head of the department elaborated, "Diseases are the manifestation of imbalances in the body and the mind and medical treatment alone is not enough for the complete recovery of the patient. This course would go a long way in providing solace and comfort along with emotional and spiritual guidance for the patients holistic recovery."

Rajesh Talwar, CEO of the hospital added, "We have seen tremendous improvements in the recovery patterns in patients who opt for spiritual care. Our successes with Spiritual Care prompted us to share our learning's with all the hospitals of Mumbai. I am very happy that the workshop was so well attended."

The hospital now plans to adopt a similar strategy for administrators and support staff in various hospitals. "Our hospital is willing to offer its experience in spiritual care for the benefit of the patients in the other hospitals of Mumbai. If any hospital so desires, we would be happy to send our team to conduct these special training sessions", concluded Talwar.