TY - JOUR

T1 - Ponderings, Pleas and Prayer

T2 - A Qualitative Content Analysis of Danish Hospital Chapel Guest Books

AU - Egerod, Ingrid

AU - Bargfeldt, Egil Hansen

AU - Kaldan, Gudrun

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - In Denmark, religious behavior is usually very private. Little is known of religious and spiritual needs of patients and family during critical illness and hospitalization. We aimed to explore contemporary thoughts and prayers related to critical illness and hospitalization expressed in hospital chapel Guest Books. Qualitative content analysis of written texts was performed on Guest Books completed from 2005–2019. We identified the main themes of health and illness, life and death, and science and religion. Visitors welcomed the Guest Books as a place to express religious and spiritual thought, even in a nominally nonreligious society.

AB - In Denmark, religious behavior is usually very private. Little is known of religious and spiritual needs of patients and family during critical illness and hospitalization. We aimed to explore contemporary thoughts and prayers related to critical illness and hospitalization expressed in hospital chapel Guest Books. Qualitative content analysis of written texts was performed on Guest Books completed from 2005–2019. We identified the main themes of health and illness, life and death, and science and religion. Visitors welcomed the Guest Books as a place to express religious and spiritual thought, even in a nominally nonreligious society.

KW - Critical illness

KW - Denmark

KW - Guestbooks

KW - Prayer

KW - Religion

KW - Spirituality

U2 - 10.1007/s10943-022-01612-7

DO - 10.1007/s10943-022-01612-7

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 35904692

AN - SCOPUS:85147783419

VL - 62

SP - 172

EP - 193

JO - Journal of Religion and Health

JF - Journal of Religion and Health

SN - 0022-4197

IS - 1

ER -