Religious Equity and Inclusion in Osteopathic Medical School Curricula: Incorporating a World Religions & Medicine Course into an Osteopathic Medical School
Madison Tarleton, MA, ABD, University of Denver & Iliff School of Theology’s Joint Doctoral Program in the Study of Religion; and a Career and Professional Development Counselor, Rocky Vista University, an Osteopathic Medical School in Parker, Colorado
Osteopathic Medicine takes a whole-person approach to the patient-clinician relationship. Focusing onlistening, engaging, and actively partnering with the patient, Osteopathic clinicians often express their tenants as: “Modern medicine for your body, mind, and spirit.” The whole-person approach to medicine bodes well for integrating the patient's and clinician's religious and cultural considerations. Integrating non-Abrahamic religious competency into modern medicine is often challenging, battling between Eurocentric ideologies and standard Western medical practices. I believe that there is a unique opportunity for Osteopathic Medical Schools to integrate World Religion and Medicine courses into their clinician training. For this reason, I propose a sampling of the course structure following the religious and medicinal trends of a few of the major world religions that will include open dialogue on challenges and pitfalls, systemic inequities and inequalities, and prejudices and biases that exist in the current Western Healthcare system, while considering Osteopathic Medicine’s relationship to each of the aforementioned traditions and the traditions’ relationships to medicine.
This course will not only create a more cohesive, well-rounded approach to medicine and religion, but it will teach student doctors (DOs) religious literacy, cultural competency, and new and emerging non- Western medicinal trends and treatments beyond their current curricula.
The proposed format of the course will be a 14-week semester course that engages with the following major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Navajo (a singular representation of Indigenous Communities). The course will begin with an introduction to Religion—why does it matter? Leaning heavily on the book, Religion Matters by Stephen Prothero, the course will continuously oscillate between conversations in Osteopathic Medicine regarding religion and conversations about medicine within different religious communities.
The presentation format for this work-in-progress will explore different ideas in Osteopathic Medicine, Religious Culture(s), and Western Medicine as it relates to care. Anne Fadiman’s, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, incapsulates the miscommunication and lack of cultural competency that can often be seen in the Western Medical system. By leveraging the whole-person approach of Osteopathic Physicians’, I believe that a course that acknowledges world religion trends and treatments, while teaching cultural competency and religious literacy, will benefit the Osteopathic Curricula and, in turn,
the patients that DOs treat.
This course will not only create a more cohesive, well-rounded approach to medicine and religion, but it will teach student doctors (DOs) religious literacy, cultural competency, and new and emerging non- Western medicinal trends and treatments beyond their current curricula.
The proposed format of the course will be a 14-week semester course that engages with the following major world religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Navajo (a singular representation of Indigenous Communities). The course will begin with an introduction to Religion—why does it matter? Leaning heavily on the book, Religion Matters by Stephen Prothero, the course will continuously oscillate between conversations in Osteopathic Medicine regarding religion and conversations about medicine within different religious communities.
The presentation format for this work-in-progress will explore different ideas in Osteopathic Medicine, Religious Culture(s), and Western Medicine as it relates to care. Anne Fadiman’s, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, incapsulates the miscommunication and lack of cultural competency that can often be seen in the Western Medical system. By leveraging the whole-person approach of Osteopathic Physicians’, I believe that a course that acknowledges world religion trends and treatments, while teaching cultural competency and religious literacy, will benefit the Osteopathic Curricula and, in turn,
the patients that DOs treat.