June Jones

The Relationship Between Spirituality, Health and Life Satisfaction of Undergraduate Students in the UK: An Online Questionnaire Study

US students with higher spirituality scores report better health and life satisfaction. This is the first UK study to explore the relationship between spirituality, health and life satisfaction of undergraduate students. Over 500 undergraduates completed an online questionnaire. Significant differences in spirituality score were present across college, ethnicity and religious belief. There appears to be a desire for spirituality amongst many students. Universities have a role to play in supporting students’ search for meaning and purpose. Additional research is warranted to further understand the role of spirituality in the health and well-being of undergraduates.

Laid bare: religious intolerance within online commentary about 'bare below the elbows' guidance in professional journals.

The decision by the Department of Health to introduce amendments to the uniform and workwear policy for the NHS in response to increasing problems with infection control seemed uncontroversial. There was, however, some difficulty with implementing the policy, which arose largely because of the conflict this caused for staff who wished to keep their arms covered for reasons which stemmed from religious beliefs. This paper uses textual analysis to examine how those reasons and challenges were discussed in online commentary within a medical and nursing journal. The papers shows that there was a marked difference in how the two groups of professionals responded to the changes to workwear, and exposes a worrying degree of religious intolerance expressed by contributors to the nursing journal.

Investigating beneficial drug reactions

It is time to move from serendipity to systematic searching

Ethical reflection for medical electives

Forty per cent of UK medical students undertake their elective in a developing country. Although these opportunities are often rewarding, students encounter ethical questions, both in preparation and undertaking these projects. The British Medical Association highlights three key ethical considerations for elective students: clinical challenges, cultural challenges and impact on the host institution. This report reflects on these considerations in the context of a 4‐week medical elective conducted by UK medical students in the Solomon Islands.

Editorial: Religion and Health

For a variety of reasons, religion and faith, with their accompanying beliefs and practices, are once more becoming overtly visible in public life and discourse. Sometimes this increased visibility focuses on problems such as accommodating the needs of groups of service users or staff. Sometimes it ranges round the increased role that religion and faith might have in promoting and providing better health and care services. One thing seems to be clear; religion in all its many forms and manifestations is not something that can be ignored in publicly used and provided health services. It is here, and it is here to stay. In fact, faith and religion never went away. If the blinkers of a certain kind of secularist Enlightenment rationalism are removed, it is clear that religion and faith communities have been integral to the philosophy, formulation, delivery and motivation for providing health care in the West. From the hospices of medieval Europe right up to the hospices inspired by the palliative care movement, religion has been a motivating and sometimes an inhibiting force. It has often been intrinsic not only to institutional and social provision, but also to personal motivation, practice and survival. The health service in most developed nations accommodates a variety of patient beliefs and practices, and draws professionals from an increasingly diverse range of backgrounds. In the contemporary context of enormous religious pluralism in supposedly secular society and liberal, egalitarian health care structures, the time has come to reprise critically the nature, place and actual and potential position and contribution of religion and faith groups in all their aspects. Should religion, for example, be

Privacy, confidentiality and abortion statistics: a question of public interest?

The precise nature and scope of healthcare confidentiality has long been the subject of debate. While the obligation of confidentiality is integral to professional ethical codes and is also safeguarded under English law through the equitable remedy of breach of confidence, underpinned by the right to privacy enshrined in Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998, it has never been regarded as absolute. But when can and should personal information be made available for statistical and research purposes and what if the information in question is highly sensitive information, such as that relating to the termination of pregnancy after 24 weeks? This article explores the case of In the Matter of an Appeal to the Information Tribunal under section 57 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, concerning the decision of the Department of Health to withhold some statistical data from the publication of its annual abortion statistics. The specific data being withheld concerned the termination for serious fetal handicap under section 1(1)d of the Abortion Act 1967. The paper explores the implications of this case, which relate both to the nature and scope of personal privacy. It suggests that lessons can be drawn from this case about public interest and use of statistical information and also about general policy issues concerning the legal regulation of confidentiality and privacy in the future.