Social organization
Spirituality or a religious background contributes many positive factors to the health care situation; collaboration with the leaders of a faith community can result in strongly positive outcomes for a patient and family.
Space Space must be defined and allocated for the patient’s and family’s private use.
Time
Health care providers must be knowledgeable about sacred time— for example, what day the patient and family observe as a day of rest—Friday for Muslims; Friday sunset until Saturday sunset for Jews; Saturday for Seventh-day Adventists; and Sunday for Christians; calendars must be posted that note holidays for all the faith traditions of people served within a given institution; meetings should not be held on these dates; Appendix B contains a list of religious holidays that do not occur on the same date each year; clergy within the faith tradition must be contacted to provide the dates for the holidays on a yearly basis; major meetings should not be scheduled on holidays.