When do doctors or other medical professionals enter into prayer with their patients? In a study published in a recent issue of the Souther Medical Journal sociologists from Brandeis and Rice Universities examined patient requests for prayer.

The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 30 academic pediatricians and pediatric oncologists at 13 leading academic medical centers around the country. They found that families most frequently raise the topic of prayer in response to a seriously ill or dying child.

The study found that pediatricians respond to requests for prayer in one of four ways: they participate in the prayers; they accommodate the prayers but don’t participate; they reframe the prayers, or they direct the families and patients to other religious and spiritual resources like hospital chaplains.