RELIGIOUSITY AND HEALTH: PATIENT EXPERIENCES AND PROFESSIONAL PERCEPTIONS

From the own trajectory as a researcher and advisor of researches on the topic, as well from a survey of Brazilian publications concerning relationships between religiosity and health over the past ten years, in this paper we performed a comparison between what these researcher have observed in investigations with patients themselves and what they have found in studies and observations with health students and professionals. Focusing more specifically to the fields of psychology, medicine and nursing, we found that, although it is growing the literature pointing to the importance of the religious / spiritual assistance be incorporated into the practices of health hospitality and humanization, there is still a large gap between what shows the experience of the patients life and the formal posture of professionals who assist them in specialised health services. Considering this gap and its great paradox, in a religious country like Brazil, we discuss the implications for vocational training in different fields of health care.