When I think about faith in medical science, I look at this from two different
ways. The first is looking at faith in the religious term and secondly as faith in
the trust term. When it comes to faith in medicine, one’s religious faith plays
a big role in how they determine the type of care they will receive. Certain
religions have rules on what types of care are banned or prohibited for
practicing members of there faith. In terms of Jehovah’s Witness, they cannot
receive a blood transfusion under any circumstance. Christian Scientist
practitioners believe in the power of prayer but do not ban followers seeking
treatment from health care professionals. They do strongly encourage the
practice of faith healing and prayer regimens (Everyday Health, 2022).
'
When we look at faith in the term of trust, we kind of have to have a little bit
of trust in the health care professionals and scientist who are part of the care
team. We must have trust that they are trained and educated to take care of us
and our loved ones. Since COVID started, millions of Americans have trusted
medical science and the scientist behind the COVID vaccine '(Cary Funk,
2020). Trust is something that is subjective to each patient, but it will always
be a topic that will arise as trust can be broken with a bad outcome. Medical
science has had a great impact on medicine both good and bad and will
always play a role as technology is evolving and access to care has become
issues for variety of reasons.
'
Refences
Cary Funk, B. K. (2020, May 21).'Trust in Medical Scientists Has Grown in
U.S., but Mainly Among Democrats. Retrieved from Pew Research
Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/05/21/trust-in-
medical-scientists-has-grown-in-u-s-but-mainly-among-democrats/
Everyday Health. (2022).'COPD: Religion vs. Medicine: When Faith Gets in
the Way of Health. Retrieved from Everyday Health:
https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living-pictures/religion-vs-
medicine-when-faith-gets-in-the-way-of-health.aspx
Hall, M. A., Camacho, F., Dugan, E., & Balkrishnan, R. (2002). Trust in the
medical profession:
conceptual and measurement issues. Health services research, 37(5),
1419–1439.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.01070
