Spirituality and Health in
Education and Research:
National Survey of Academic Leaders
In the last twenty years, the breadth and depth of interest into the relationship between health and spirituality has grown exponentially. Accompanying this increased general interest, some educational institutions are including this material in standard and elective curricula. In fact, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) now includes spirituality as a component in the Medical School Objectives Project Report III which contains a set of curriculum guidelines sent to all medical schools.
No doubt, this inclusion is in part due to the support since 1995 that the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) has provided for medical schools to develop courses on religion, spirituality and medicine. The program was developed and implemented by David B. Larson and Dale Matthews at the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR). In 1995, NIHR awarded three $25,000 grants to medical schools to develop courses on religion, spirituality and medicine. The winners of the first three awards were schools of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Ohio State University, and Pennsylvania State University
In 2001, Christina Puchalski assumed administrative responsibility for the medical school curricular awards program and moved it to George Washington University’s Institute for Spirituality and Health (GWISH), where it continues. Now, the curricular awards are $50,000 and administered over 4 years. They are offered to medical schools in the U.S. and Canada (as well as awards to residencies in primary care and in psychiatry) to integrate spirituality as part of the curriculum. According to GWISH, nearly 100 of the 143 medical schools now have courses on spirituality and health. Accompanying the curricular growth has been an increase in the volume of research in the area of spirituality and health.
In the context of this growth, however, we continue to lack adequate understanding of the importance that the leaders of these schools place on educating students about spirituality and health or conducting research on this topic.
Over the next year, with support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health will conduct a survey of medical school, nursing, and public health deans. In addition, in order to develop our understanding more thoroughly, a sub-sample of 20 deans of medical education will be selected for more in-depth interviews. Ten of these deans will be from medical schools with required courses or course content on religion, spirituality and medicine, and ten will be from medical schools without elective or required spirituality and medicine courses or course content.
From the perspective of these top administrators, this study seeks to identify what schools are doing in terms of training students in the area of spirituality and health, what is known about the research that has been done, what research their universities are doing in spirituality and health, and what specific areas of research they perceive as having the highest priority to help with the development of this field. The results should help clarify understanding of current attitudes, practices, and experience as well as provide guidance in developing future priorities for investigation and support.
