Lizzie Cornish wrote: "I think that doctors and nurses *are* working in a spiritual welfare industry every single moment of their working lives.

The mind is as important as the body, in some cases even more so, and I seem to recall this nurse saying something about taking the whole person into account, not just 'the medical problem'...and here it is".

Spiritual welfare or mental well-being? The mind is certainly as important as the body (I made a point about positive thinking with regards to recovery in my very first post on this thread), but the mind isn't necessarily the same thing as the soul. 'Soul' and 'spiritual well-being' has a completely different set of connotations to that of 'mind' and 'mental well-being'.

Do people really confuse the likes of psychiatrists and psychologists with nuns and priests?


"The problem is Political Correctness has made it a 'scientific' industry only now. What a bloody loss!"

To be honest, I find that sentence a little frightening. I'd hope that the practice of medicine was only a scientific industry. Bedside manner and pastoral care &c. maybe good things but they aren't the practice of medicine per se. The two things shouldn't be confused even if you see the pastoral care as complimenting the practice of medicine.