Faith Healing for childhood Leukemia. Nursing Case Study

Faith healing for childhood leukemia
Name
Institution
Date 
The legal decision maker (s)
The parents chose the faith-healing services even after being informed about the healing option available as they believed that healing and faith were the best alternative for their child.   The legal decision makers are the mother and father since the child is below 18 years and they are the child’s surrogates.  Even as the parents have failed to appear for the follow-up there is still a need to monitor the child’s progress. The parents’ belief in faith healing has resulted in their rejection of conventional medicine.  In nursing and medicine there is no perfect diagnosis at all times, highlighting the need to consider the parents’ decision. Both the health practitioners and parents make decisions believing that this is in the child’s best interest, but the difference is that the users and physicians use their knowledge to improve the well-being and quality of life of the ten-month-old boy (Brody & Van Eys, 1981).  At the early infancy, the child cannot understand the relevant information and the parents then are the substitute decision-makers for the infant, but the pediatric health care providers need to assess the situation, and how beliefs and attitudes influence decision-making. 
Pertinent social influences in the case
Spiritual assistance and faith influence medical decisions and this should be considered when making medical recommendations to avoid misunderstandings.  Religion and spirituality have positive influence on health as they improve their wellbeing and are associated with positive coping strategies (Guglielmi et al., 2014). There is increased support for holistic patient care and this includes considering spirituality and religion in health care. Research on the treatment of childhood leukemia and availability of information on the success rate of the interventions, but the challenge is that physicians often fail to involve patients in decisions. Sometimes unquestioned belief stand in the way of improving the health outco...