Sacred Spaces: Experiential Learning in Medical Education
Lawrence Lin, BSME, Medical Student, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
Sam Joseph, Medical Student, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
Stuart Nelson, Masters in Religious Studies, Vice President, Institute for Spirituality and Health
The objectives of medical education seem concrete: to learn the relevant pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of diseases. There is far more to training a compassionate physician however that includes caring for the whole person. In 1999, AAMC published the efforts of their Task Force on Spirituality, Cultural Issues, and End of Life Care to establish guidelines around how to teach medical students knowledge of the psychological, social and cultural determinants of health. They were abstract with their goals such as to be “aware of the need to incorporate awareness of spirituality”. The implementation of this education has been the responsibility of individual medical colleges.
While most medical schools have implemented some form of spiritual education, the majority of it is superficial, taught through journal articles and slideshow presentations. Realizing the need for an effective approach, the authors conceived an experiential curriculum designed to enhance students’ understanding of the spiritual and religious dimensions of health. In this paper, we explore our community-based program, “Sacred Sites of Houston: How Faith and Medicine Interact,” launched in Spring 2016 at McGovern Medical School (formerly University of Texas Medical School at Houston).
The program gives students the opportunity to visit sacred spaces and interact with religious leaders and community members. In a typical visit, the students learn the basic beliefs and practices of the respective faith and how it relates to biomedicine and the body. Additionally, congregants who have faced personal illness or hardships of a loved one’s illness dialogue with the students. So far, the course has touched on Islam, Baptism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Quakerism. The combination of theological reflection and personal narrative provides students with insight and an anchor point for how a patient’s faith may be interwoven with their disease course.
To evaluate the impact of this education, course participants are asked to complete pre- and post-course surveys, which include questions related to demographics, knowledge of world religions, and how medicine intersects with religion and spirituality. The students also submit an original reflection piece with their choice on medium and subject as derived from course content. The goals of the course are two-fold. We seek both to inform participants of the religious and cultural factors that affect health, imparting an awareness of spirituality that spurs further education related to patient care, and to provide an experience of faiths and culture the student would otherwise be unexposed to. In this presentation, we will summarize our findings through two cohorts on the influence of this program on shaping participants’ views and foundational religious knowledge. Additionally, we will present our vision for the future of the program to expand to other medical colleges and to other health professions.
Sam Joseph, Medical Student, McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics
Stuart Nelson, Masters in Religious Studies, Vice President, Institute for Spirituality and Health
The objectives of medical education seem concrete: to learn the relevant pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of diseases. There is far more to training a compassionate physician however that includes caring for the whole person. In 1999, AAMC published the efforts of their Task Force on Spirituality, Cultural Issues, and End of Life Care to establish guidelines around how to teach medical students knowledge of the psychological, social and cultural determinants of health. They were abstract with their goals such as to be “aware of the need to incorporate awareness of spirituality”. The implementation of this education has been the responsibility of individual medical colleges.
While most medical schools have implemented some form of spiritual education, the majority of it is superficial, taught through journal articles and slideshow presentations. Realizing the need for an effective approach, the authors conceived an experiential curriculum designed to enhance students’ understanding of the spiritual and religious dimensions of health. In this paper, we explore our community-based program, “Sacred Sites of Houston: How Faith and Medicine Interact,” launched in Spring 2016 at McGovern Medical School (formerly University of Texas Medical School at Houston).
The program gives students the opportunity to visit sacred spaces and interact with religious leaders and community members. In a typical visit, the students learn the basic beliefs and practices of the respective faith and how it relates to biomedicine and the body. Additionally, congregants who have faced personal illness or hardships of a loved one’s illness dialogue with the students. So far, the course has touched on Islam, Baptism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Quakerism. The combination of theological reflection and personal narrative provides students with insight and an anchor point for how a patient’s faith may be interwoven with their disease course.
To evaluate the impact of this education, course participants are asked to complete pre- and post-course surveys, which include questions related to demographics, knowledge of world religions, and how medicine intersects with religion and spirituality. The students also submit an original reflection piece with their choice on medium and subject as derived from course content. The goals of the course are two-fold. We seek both to inform participants of the religious and cultural factors that affect health, imparting an awareness of spirituality that spurs further education related to patient care, and to provide an experience of faiths and culture the student would otherwise be unexposed to. In this presentation, we will summarize our findings through two cohorts on the influence of this program on shaping participants’ views and foundational religious knowledge. Additionally, we will present our vision for the future of the program to expand to other medical colleges and to other health professions.