Malik Muhammad Sohail

Objective: This study explored health professionals' experiences of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare with a particular focus on the potential benefits and challenges of using AI in clinical practice. Method: Using a qualitative research design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of twenty-two health professionals from various medical specialties in northern Punjab, Pakistan. Thematic analysis identified recurring themes on AI adoption. Results: Health professionals recognized AI as a psychosocial modifier which increased efficiency and overall professional well-being. Participants expressed that AI should function as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for human judgment, empathy, and patient interaction. They also acknowledged a hesitation to incorporate AI due to a distrust of its accuracy, and also indicated that institutions have been slow to adopt AI due to ethical, technical, and institutional challenges. Conclusion: AI adoption is increasingly reshaping clinical practice, but sustainable integration in Pakistan requires balancing innovation with ethical safeguards, trust, and empathy.

As spirituality aims to reconnect us with the Sacred and should have effects on prosocial behavior, too, this study aimed to examine the role of transformational spirituality in raising prosocial and pro-environmental behavior. Data were collected from 370 students and teachers from different universities in Punjab. This cross-sectional study found that students scored higher on religious practices and awe/gratitude as an experiential aspect of spirituality as compared to their teachers. Living from the faith, perception of the sacred, and awe/gratitude were moderately interconnected. Both living from the faith and perception of awe/gratitude were strongly or moderately related to prosocial behaviors and valuing the environment/nature, as well as times of pausing in silence and reflection. These results help us to understand the role of the complex construct of spirituality that may contribute to promoting prosocial and pro-environmental behaviors of a young generation.

Objective: Burnout among physicians negatively impacts the quality of patient care and provider's mental health. While many studies have evaluated burnout, factors associated with physician thriving are not well-defined. This study involved a qualitative exploration of thriving and career satisfaction among physicians in Pakistan. Methods: A snowball sampling technique was used to recruit participants who completed a measure of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and burnout between December 2022 and February 2023. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted to explore factors associated with burnout and thriving. Participants were physicians working in public and private hospitals in North Punjab. Results: Twenty-four physicians were interviewed. Six themes emerged that might help to explain factors involved in thriving: patients' affirmation, serving humanity, social support, spiritual connection, occupational prestige, and activities outside of work. Two themes were identified as challenges to thriving: excessive workload and lack of resources. Conclusion: Improving the well-being of primary care practitioners requires a multimodal approach, which includes cultivating intrinsic virtues, such as resilience and spiritual resources, as well as improving social support and the workplace environment.

Introduction: There is a gap in healthcare literature related to the spiritual competence of physicians and nurses practicing in South Asian Muslim communities. To fill that gap, the Spiritual Care Competence Questionnaire (SCCQ) was applied which was developed to address multi-professional spiritual care competences. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study among 294 health professionals (61% physicians, 17% nurses, and 22% other professions) in 10 hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan. Results: The highest scoring competences were “Dealing with patients/Communication competences”, while “Team Spirit” scored lowest. There were no gender related differences, but there were effects related to professions. “Team Spirit”, “Dealing with patients/Communication competences”, and “Empowerment competences” scored significantly higher in nurses as compared to physicians and other health care professionals, while there were no significant differences for their “Perception/Documentation competences”. These competences were not relevantly related to the intensity of their prayer/meditation activity. Conclusions: Health care professional from Punjab were preferred to tolerate the pain and the suffering of patients and their relatives rather than to talk about spiritual care issues. Their spiritual care competences were less developed. Thus, there is a clear need for further specific education and training of health professionals.

Pain is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon and integral component of illness but little is known about its religious construction and interpretation. This article discusses an important yet neglected component of terminal illness which is the religious construction of pain. Eleven hepatitis C Muslim patients admitted to the liver center were recruited for this study. In‐depth interviews helped the identification of dominant themes. The study found that terminal patients construct pain in a religious context and interpret it into religious realms. For them, pain helps to realize their debility and helplessness. They think pain has a transformatory potential and can help them turn to be very strong and brave. The participants also reported having a belief that pain in this world could be compensated in the life hereafter and they will be rewarded with good deeds and bestowed with the Jannah (paradise). The terminal patients strongly influenced by religion and spirituality believed to be experiencing pain as a punishment of their misdeeds. Thus, pain was helping them to normalize their end‐of‐life experiences and ease the terminal stage of their illness.

The interplay between positive and negative emotions during alcohol treatment is complex. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between alcohol reductions and changes in positive and negative emotions across a one-year period. Chronic HCV patients (n = 174) with alcohol use received brief alcohol counseling and were encouraged to address their alcohol use. Participants completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)-Short Form, the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form, and the Alcohol Timeline Follow-back at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months. Decreases in alcohol use were related to decreased negative emotions from baseline to 3 months, baseline to 6 months and baseline to 12 months. Decreases in alcohol use were associated with increased positive emotions from baseline to 12 months but not sooner.

Religious/spiritual beliefs play an important role in nursing of patients during chronic condition. Religion comprises an institutionalized set of transcendent ideas, while spirituality is personal and subjective dimension of religious experience in search of sacred (Hill and Pargament in Psychol Relig Spiritual S(1):3–17, 2008 ). The prevailing literature describes the influential impact of religiosity/spirituality on coping with chronic disease, but specifically patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) have not been studied in Pakistani context. This study examined the patients’ belief in religious/spiritual coping, role of religious/spiritual beliefs and prayer as coping strategy. Furthermore, it explored the importance of religious/spiritual beliefs in diverting attention from pain and other needs of CLD patient. A total of 20 patients with chronic liver disease were selected through an appropriate screening process. Subsequently, in-depth detailed interviews were conducted to gather experiences of the hepatitis patients. Religious/spiritual beliefs put forth multiple positive effects that help in coping with chronic hepatitis C. It has been found that patients of hepatitis C use prayer as a coping strategy. Religious/spiritual beliefs have been found as source of diverting attention from pain for the patients suffering from chronic hepatitis C.