Spiritist Hospital Chaplaincy in Brazil: 5 Years of Documented Experience

Spiritist Hospital Chaplaincy in Brazil has been growing significantly in recent years, with the implementation of new services through the work of Spiritist Medical Associations (SMAs) in different regions of the country. This article describes the importance of historical interconnections from the advent of spiritism in the world and its introduction in Brazil to the emergence of Spiritist Hospital Chaplaincy in our country and presents the documented experience over 5 years of spiritist chaplain care, in the period from 2012 to 2016, guided by the SMA of Piracicaba at the Unimed Hospital of Piracicaba (São Paulo). We documented 41,914 visits to 13,983 inpatients and an analysis of these records allowed us to reflect on the importance of this service and confirm its expansion and acceptance by different contemporary religious beliefs.     

The relationship context of human behavior and development

The influence of social relationships on human development and behavior is receiving increased attention from psychologists, who are central contributors to the rapidly developing multidisciplinary field of relationship science. In this article, the authors selectively review some of the significant strides that have been made toward understanding the effects of relationships on development and behavior and the processes by which relationships exert their influence on these, with the purpose of highlighting important questions that remain to be answered, controversial issues that need to be resolved, and potentially profitable paths for future inquiry. The authors' thesis is that important advances in psychological knowledge will be achieved from concerted investigation of the relationship context in which most important human behaviors are developed and displayed.     

National evaluation of US newborn screening system components

Newborn screening has existed as a state-based public health service since the early 1960s. Every state and most territorial jurisdictions have comprehensive newborn screening programs in place, but in the United States a national newborn screening policy does not exist. This results in different administrative infrastructures, screening requirements, laboratory and follow-up services, medical management approaches, and related activities across the country. Federal initiatives and support have contributed to limited evaluations of various aspects of individual newborn screening programs at the national level, but funding is an issue. The national evaluation strategies have taken various forms, all with the intent of improving the screening system through review of actions taken and suggestions for future improvements. While participation in the national evaluation effort for newborn screening laboratory practices includes all US programs, and this has aided in improving quality and harmonizing protocols, other national evaluation activities have been only moderately successful. National data reporting of quality indicators for various program elements must be comprehensive and timely, and the elements must be universally accepted in order to meet the evaluation and improvement needs of the national newborn screening system. A comprehensive real time national evaluation activity will likely require additional resources and enforcement incentives. Limited federal actions through grant incentives and selected reporting requirements provide a possible means of stimulating programs to participate in national harmonization efforts.