Feasibility assessment of adapting intensive care units to religious regulations: A qualitative study
نویسندگان
1 Student Research Committee, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran AND Trauma Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran
2 Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
3 Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
4 Trauma Research Center, Kashan University of Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran AND Student Research Committee, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
5 Spiritual Health Research Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
doi
10.48307/atr.2025.554868.1290چکیده
Background: Respecting patients’ rights in intensive care units (ICUs) requires a delicate balance between clinical imperatives and religious obligations, including ritual requirements, jurisprudential rulings, ethical norms, and organizational policies. Practical and interdisciplinary evidence on the feasibility of designing and implementing ICUs that systematically integrate these dimensions in accordance with religious regulations remains limited. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the principles, barriers, and operational strategies for adapting ICUs to religious considerations.Methods: This qualitative research was conducted using a thematic analysis approach among 29 participants, including specialists in anesthesiology, medical ethics, ICU nursing, hospital management, hospital engineering, and family members of patients, across two university hospitals selected by purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted until data saturation was achieved. Data were analyzed using MAXQDA software based on Braun and Clarke’s six-phase framework, and the trustworthiness of the findings was ensured according to Lincoln and Guba’s criteria. Results: Data analysis yielded three main themes, 12 categories, 31 subcategories, and 84 codes. Theme 1, Religious Obligations and Patients’ Rights: This theme emphasizes ensuring opportunities for worship, maintaining privacy and dignity, providing transparent information, observing end-of-life religious principles, and guaranteeing halal nutrition and medication. Theme 2, Implementation Challenges: This theme highlighted constraints in human and physical resources, alongside the critical condition of patients, as significant barriers to fulfilling religious requirements. Theme 3, Operational Strategies: This theme focused on faith-based technical and managerial design, family involvement, and Islamic financial support as practical pathways for establishing religiously compliant ICUs.Conclusion: Adapting ICUs to religious regulations requires a multidimensional and phased approach that integrates jurisprudence, engineering, and clinical medicine. Implementing the recommendations of this study may provide a robust foundation for developing a context-specific model of religiously compliant ICUs, along with protocols, monitoring indicators, and ethical-religious policies for hospital design.
