Rethinking Professional Formation in Medicine: An Ignatian Approach
Michael McCarthy, MTS, PhD
Candidate, Loyola University Chicago
John Hardt, PhD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine, through a grant from the University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine and Religion, has begun a four-year formation program for a self-selecting cohort of medical students interested in exploring the intersection of their faith commitments and the practice of medicine. This paper will present an overview of an innovative effort in professional medical formation using the spiritual tradition of Saint Ignatius and the practices of religious formation. It will proceed in three parts: a brief review of justification and impetus, a word about religious formation and vocation, and the importance of a formation that acknowledges the limits of medicine.
The Physician’s Vocation Program was driven initially by a cohort of medical students who sought a conversation and context for addressing questions at the intersection of faith and medicine, and secondly by scholarly reflection detailing the failure of the medical professionalism movement. The literature continually reports that efforts to inculcate professionalism and self-care in medical education are failing. Inui’s AAMC report, “A Flag in the Wind,” chronicles those failures in which students continue to experience an erosion of idealism and compassion while becoming more prone to cynicism and burnout. Two recent New York Times pieces point to medicine’s continued search for meaning the spiritual dynamic of medicine (Borstein, “Medicine’s Search for Meaning" and “Who Will Heal the Doctors?”). While a generalized approach to spirituality and self-care has been endorsed in various ways in medical training, Loyola’s Physician’s Vocation Program (PVP) turns to the practice of religious formation rooted in the context of a Catholic and Jesuit medical in an effort to sustain one’s sense of vocation.
The modern understanding of vocation finds its origin in Martin Luther who worked to expand the concept of vocation beyond its pertinence to the clergy. Vocation was no longer the exclusive province of vowed, religious life. Ironically, this sanctification of ordinary life and work led to the individualization of one’s vocation. However, the religious origins of vocation remain rooted in community. The PVP draws on the spiritual tradition of Ignatius of Loyola, a contemporary of Luther and the founder of the Society of Jesus, who at once emphasized the personal relationship with God and the way one acts particularly in relationship to the community. Religious formation from an Ignatian perspective is always firmly rooted in community with an emphasis on an authenticity to oneself and to whom one is responsible (Taylor 1991)
Toward this end, The Physician’s Vocation Program at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine uses essential elements of religious formation: education through graduate level courses, fostering a habit of prayer—including an experience of Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises—the development of community, and a commitment to service. The formation process provides a communal context for physicians of faith to better acknowledge and respond to the limits of medicine in a way that sustains both their relationship with God and the recognition of that God in the patients whom they serve.
John Hardt, PhD, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine, through a grant from the University of Chicago’s Program on Medicine and Religion, has begun a four-year formation program for a self-selecting cohort of medical students interested in exploring the intersection of their faith commitments and the practice of medicine. This paper will present an overview of an innovative effort in professional medical formation using the spiritual tradition of Saint Ignatius and the practices of religious formation. It will proceed in three parts: a brief review of justification and impetus, a word about religious formation and vocation, and the importance of a formation that acknowledges the limits of medicine.
The Physician’s Vocation Program was driven initially by a cohort of medical students who sought a conversation and context for addressing questions at the intersection of faith and medicine, and secondly by scholarly reflection detailing the failure of the medical professionalism movement. The literature continually reports that efforts to inculcate professionalism and self-care in medical education are failing. Inui’s AAMC report, “A Flag in the Wind,” chronicles those failures in which students continue to experience an erosion of idealism and compassion while becoming more prone to cynicism and burnout. Two recent New York Times pieces point to medicine’s continued search for meaning the spiritual dynamic of medicine (Borstein, “Medicine’s Search for Meaning" and “Who Will Heal the Doctors?”). While a generalized approach to spirituality and self-care has been endorsed in various ways in medical training, Loyola’s Physician’s Vocation Program (PVP) turns to the practice of religious formation rooted in the context of a Catholic and Jesuit medical in an effort to sustain one’s sense of vocation.
The modern understanding of vocation finds its origin in Martin Luther who worked to expand the concept of vocation beyond its pertinence to the clergy. Vocation was no longer the exclusive province of vowed, religious life. Ironically, this sanctification of ordinary life and work led to the individualization of one’s vocation. However, the religious origins of vocation remain rooted in community. The PVP draws on the spiritual tradition of Ignatius of Loyola, a contemporary of Luther and the founder of the Society of Jesus, who at once emphasized the personal relationship with God and the way one acts particularly in relationship to the community. Religious formation from an Ignatian perspective is always firmly rooted in community with an emphasis on an authenticity to oneself and to whom one is responsible (Taylor 1991)
Toward this end, The Physician’s Vocation Program at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine uses essential elements of religious formation: education through graduate level courses, fostering a habit of prayer—including an experience of Saint Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises—the development of community, and a commitment to service. The formation process provides a communal context for physicians of faith to better acknowledge and respond to the limits of medicine in a way that sustains both their relationship with God and the recognition of that God in the patients whom they serve.