Winter 2025: Notes from the Field
Stephanie Milton
Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate Program in the Study of Religion

Tuesday, February 11, 12:00-1:00 pm
912 Sproul
Lunch Served

“I’ll Pray About It:” Black Patients' Expressed Beliefs and Agency In Critical Values-Based Health Decisions

Spirituality is recognized as a coping strategy for critically ill individuals as well as a factor influencing engagement in advanced care planning. In the United States, elderly adults from cultural and ethnic minorities encounter substantial obstacles in obtaining and selecting palliative or end-of-life care services, however. Black communities, particularly, experience a reduced quality of life in their later years, along with physical, spiritual, and financial adversities that impact the following generation. While recent research shows that Black patients and caregivers utilize religious language in critical consultations, there is a lack of data regarding the motivations and timing for marginalized individuals to name and/or participate in religious practices and prayer in these contexts. My dissertation research examines the expressed motivations of Black Americans who depend upon their religious beliefs during end-of-life discussions with their medical practitioners. I seek to understand how the faith of Black individuals provides them with hope and agency in making significant medical decisions.