Developing a Medical School Curriculum for Psychological, Moral, and Spiritual Wellness: Student and Faculty Perspectives

Abstract

Context Although many studies have addressed the integration of a religion and/or spirituality curriculum into medical school training, few describe the process of curriculum development based on qualitative data from students and faculty. Objectives The aim of this study is to explore the perspectives of medical students and chaplaincy trainees regarding the development of a curriculum to facilitate reflection on moral and spiritual dimensions of caring for the critically ill and to train students in self-care practices that promote professionalism. Methods Research staff conducted semiscripted and one-on-one interviews and focus groups. Respondents also completed a short and self-reported demographic questionnaire. Participants included 44 students and faculty members from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Divinity School, specifically senior medical students and divinity school students who have undergone chaplaincy training. Results Two major qualitative themes emerged: curriculum format and curriculum content. Inter-rater reliability was high (kappa = 0.75). With regard to curriculum format, most participants supported the curriculum being longitudinal, elective, and experiential. With regard to curriculum content, five subthemes emerged: personal religious and/or spiritual (R/S) growth, professional integration of R/S values, addressing patient needs, structural and/or institutional dynamics within the health care system, and controversial social issues. Conclusion Qualitative findings of this study suggest that development of a future medical school curriculum on R/S and wellness should be elective, longitudinal, and experiential and should focus on the impact and integration of R/S values and self-care practices within self, care for patients, and the medical team. Future research is necessary to study the efficacy of these curricula once implemented.

Building Towards Common Psychosocial Measures in U.S. Cohort Studies: A Qualitative Assessment of Principal Investigators’ Views regarding the Role of Spirituality in Human Health

“…Questions addressed PIs' experiences with and exposure to research on R/S; reasons why they decided to collect the R/S measures their cohort has collected thus far, or for not collecting any R/S measures; their assessment of the quality of existing R/S research; their assessment of the importance of R/S practices and beliefs in understanding disease etiology; their beliefs regarding the pathways or mechanisms through which R/S might operate to affect human health, if at all; and the kinds of evidence they would need to see before being willing to invest cohort resources in collecting new or additional R/S measures going forward. Based on our team's previous work (39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44), we anticipated that 20 individual interviews would be more than sufficient to achieve thematic saturation.…”

Training Physicians as Healers

“…More recently, courses began to integrate the spirituality of the clinician as a way to help students identify with their role as healers. 18 These courses also started integrating spirituality as a part of student wellness, 19 particularly in response to the growing crisis of physician burnout, depression, and suicide. 20 From 1996 to 2008, the senior author (CP) and GWish led a medical school and residency Spirituality and Health Curricular Awards program, which contributed to the increase in the number of US medical schools incorporating spirituality in their curriculum from 13% in 1994 to 90% by 2014 and to spirituality curricular integration in psychiatry and family medicine residency programs.…”

Impostorism in third-year medical students: an item analysis using the Clance impostor phenomenon scale

“…Impostorism has also been shown to contribute to burnout and to be an impediment to identity formation as physicians, which in turn can negatively affect patient care [11,12,[27][28][29]. There is thus considerable interest in, and efforts directed towards, promoting student wellbeing in medical education, including mitigating impostor feelings [30,31].…”