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The NERSH Questionnaire and Pool of Data from 12 Countries: Development and Description

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Abstract

Modern healthcare research has only in recent years investigated the impact of health care workers’ religious and other values on medical practice, interaction with patients, and ethically complex decision making. So far, only limited international data exist on the way such values vary across different countries. We therefore established the NERSH International Collaboration on Values in Medicine with datasets on physician religious characteristics and values based on the same questionnaire. The present article provides (a) an overview of the development of the original and optimized questionnaire, (b) an overview of the content of the NERSH data pool at this stage and (c) a brief review of insights gained from articles published with the questionnaire. The pool at this stage consists of data from 17 studies from research units in 12 different countries representing six continents with responses from more than 6000 health professionals. The joint data pool suggests that there are large differences in religious and other moral values across nations and cultures, and that these values contribute to the observed differences in health professionals’ clinical practices—across nations and cultures!

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Abbreviations

ASP:

Aspects of spirituality

DUREL:

Duke Religiosity Index

FRIAS:

Freiburg institute for advanced studies

HPs:

Health professionals

IRG:

Interdisciplinary Research Group

NERSH:

Network for research in spirituality and health

NGT:

Nominal group technique

R/S:

Religion/Spirituality understood as a unit of both, although they conceptually and phenomenologically have different traits

RSMPP:

Questionnaire religion and spirituality in medicine: physicians’ perspectives

SpREUK:

Spiritual and religious attitudes in dealing with illness

TCAM:

Traditional complementary and alternative medicine

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Funding

The funding was provided by Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Adibhat foundation, Syddansk Universitet, Region of Southern Denmark - Psykiatriens Forskningsfond.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Unit of General Practice, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Niels Christian Hvidt, Jens Søndergaard & Jesper Bo Nielsen

  2. Academy of Geriatric Cancer Research (AgeCare), Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark

    Niels Christian Hvidt

  3. Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Farr Curlin

  4. Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Integrative Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Herdecke, Gerhard-Kienle-Weg 4, 58313, Herdecke, Germany

    Arndt Büssing

  5. Caritas Science and Christian Social Work, Faculty of Theology, Freiburg University, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

    Klaus Baumann

  6. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Research Centre Spiritual Care, The University Hospital Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Langerstr. 3, 81675, Munich, Germany

    Eckhard Frick

  7. Forschungsstelle Spiritual Care, Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, Munich School of Philosophy, Kaulbachstr. 31, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Eckhard Frick

  8. Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, USA

    Ryan Lawrence

  9. Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Avenida Eugênio de Nascimento s/n - Aeroporto, Juiz de Fora, MG, 36038330, Brazil

    Giancarlo Lucchetti

  10. Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan

  11. AdiBhat Foundation, New Delhi, India

    Parameshwaran Ramakrishnan

  12. Medical Faculty, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Inga Wermuth

  13. Medical Faculty, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    René Hefti

  14. Research Institute for Spirituality and Health (RISH), Langenthal, Switzerland

    René Hefti

  15. Caritas Science and Christian Social Work, Faculty of Theology, Freiburg University Center for Social Cohesion, Daegu Catholic University, Hayang-Ro 13-13, Hayang-Eup, Gyeongsan-Si, Gyeongbuk, 38430, Republic of Korea

    Eunmi Lee

  16. Research Unit of General Practice, Department of Mental Health Kolding-Vejle, Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Alex Kappel Kørup

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  1. Niels Christian Hvidt
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  2. Farr Curlin
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  8. Ryan Lawrence
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Contributions

NCH contributed to translations of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis, to the development of the NERSH questionnaire, to the establishment of the NERSH Network and NERSH pool, secured agreements with and data from all NERSH contributors, contributed to the citation search and the systematic literature search and conceived and wrote the article. AKK handles the data pool, analyzed initial comparative data, contributed to the citation search and the systematic literature search and contributed to the writing process. AS contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. AB contributed to the development and validation of the NERSH questionnaire, to data collection and analysis, the establishment of the NERSH Network and NERSH pool and to the writing of this article. AK contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, contributed to data collection and to the writing of this article. CK contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis, and to the writing of this article. CBR contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. EF contributed to the translation of the RSMPP and to the development of the NERSH questionnaire, contributed to data collection, the establishment of the NERSH Network and NERSH pool and contributed to the writing of this article. ES contributed to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. EL contributed to the translation of the RSMPP into German and Korean, to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. FC designed the original RSMPP, contributed to data collection and analysis, to the development of the NERSH questionnaire, contributed to the writing of the article. GL contributed to translation of the RSMPP and of the NERSH questionnaire, contributed to data collection and to the writing of this article. IW contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. JS hosts the data, contributed with institutional support for the NERSH project and to the writing of this article. Klaus Baumann contributed to the translation of the RSMPP and to the development of the NERSH questionnaire, contributed to data collection, the establishment of the NERSH Network and NERSH pool and contributed to the writing of this article. ME contributed to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. MW contributed to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. NAA contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. PR contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, contributed to data collection and analysis and contributed to the writing of this article. RPC contributed to the ethical and statistical aspects of data handling and to the writing of this article. RH contributed to data collection and to the writing of this article. RL contributed to the development of the NERSH questionnaire, contributed to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article. TO contributed to data collection and to the writing of this article. TM contributed to the translation of the RSMPP, to data collection and analysis and to the writing of this article.

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Correspondence to Niels Christian Hvidt.

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Hvidt, N.C., Curlin, F., Büssing, A. et al. The NERSH Questionnaire and Pool of Data from 12 Countries: Development and Description. J Relig Health 61, 2605–2630 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01428-x

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