The Development of Guidelines for the Inclusion of Spirituality and Spiritual Care in Unani Tibb Practice in South Africa: A Study Protocol

Unani Tibb is a holistic form of medicine, which highlights the interconnectedness of mind, body and soul. Despite this, there is very little evidence of spiritual care practices by Unani Tibb practitioners in South Africa. This protocol outlines a proposed process for developing guidelines to integrate spirituality and spiritual care in Unani Tibb practice. In phase one, a document review will be conducted on spirituality and spiritual care in complementary and alternative medicine and Unani Tibb. A series of quantitative and qualitative enquiries will follow to obtain the perspectives of various stakeholders in the Unani Tibb profession. Phase two will rely on the findings of phase I to develop guidelines according to the Delphi method. Experts in the relevant fields will be soliciting their opinions on the nature and content of the proposed guidelines. The data will be analysed using descriptive statistical analyses, thematic analysis and narrative synthesis. Ethics clearance has been obtained from the ethics committee of the university.