Spirituality in Healthcare: Does it Belong?

I recently read a blog about spirituality in health care, what interested me about it was that I have never thought about the topic and how I felt about it as a nurse. Generally as a nurse, the bulk of the time that I am inquiring about spirituality is as it is related to practices that interfere with health care and when the question is asked patients are very puzzled (in a new light I understand as it is almost as if we are asking if there is any competition). I have never thought about it, although not surprised, as a means for being a protective factor that may even enhance the experiences of modern medicine. As I reflect on the scenarios where doctors gave timelines on patient life and patients surpassed them; I have also seen patients with the best odds of overcoming a condition die because of it. Now, what I have taken into consideration are those patients who used their spirituality to balance their mental and physical being regardless of the diagnosis. I found in these moments, ideal times to acknowledge and to support them (which does not have to interfere with my own spiritual beliefs) in how they saw their walk of life and how they felt about it or how they got through it or how life ended with it. I realized that I can allow my patients to have their first, last, or all those days in between spiritually so that they are themselves fulfilled. As a nurse, if I have to smile as my patients or their families pray, stop as I enter a room so that they can finish a prayer, or remove myself from the room while they pray; I want to create a atmosphere that spirituality is important and is not and should not be in competition with health care. How do you feel as a nurse/doctor respecting and/or acknowledging a patient's spirituality?