ArticleBMC medical education2015
How should teaching on whole person medicine, including spiritual issues, be delivered in the undergraduate medical curriculum in the United Kingdom?
Article in BMC medical education, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Integrating Spiritual Care Teaching Within the Australian Medical Curriculum.The clinical teacher · 2026Article
- "We Don't Normally Go Down This Avenue; This Is Normally Taboo": Using Co-Design to Develop a Training Intervention for Spiritual Health in Primary Care.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- The Spiritual Supporter Scale as a New Tool for Assessing Spiritual Care Competencies in Professionals: Design, Validation, and Psychometric Evaluation.Journal of religion and health · 2023Article
- Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of Short-Form Life Attitude Inventory for hospital staff.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Developing The Spiritual Health Curriculum Approach Based on Tyler's Model in Iran.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2022Article
- A training programme for medical students in providing spiritual care to people with advanced diseases and their loved ones: A case study from the Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
- Spirituality as a sociocultural determinant of health in the context of medical curriculum: A call for action.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2020Article
- A Survey on the Integration of Spiritual Care in Medical Schools from the German-Speaking Faculties.Advances in medical education and practice · 2019Article
- Transcendence, religion and spirituality in medicine: Medical students' point of view.Medicine · 2016Observational
- Mapping and assessment of personal and professional development skills in a pharmacy curriculum.BMC medical education · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough the General Medical Council recommends that United Kingdom medical students are taught 'whole person medicine', spiritual care is variably recognised within the curriculum. Data on teaching delivery and attainment of learning outcomes is lacking. This study ascertained views of Faculty and students about spiritual care and how to teach and assess competence in delivering such care.
methodsA questionnaire comprising 28 questions exploring attitudes to whole person medicine, spirituality and illness, and training of healthcare staff in providing spiritual care was designed using a five-point Likert scale. Free text comments were studied by thematic analysis. The questionnaire was distributed to 1300 students and 106 Faculty at Queen's University Belfast Medical School.
results351 responses (54 staff, 287 students; 25 %) were obtained. >90 % agreed that whole person medicine included physical, psychological and social components; 60 % supported inclusion of a spiritual component within the definition. Most supported availability of spiritual interventions for patients, including access to chaplains (71 %), counsellors (62 %), or members of the patient's faith community (59 %). 90 % felt that personal faith/spirituality was important to some patients and 60 % agreed that this influenced health. However 80 % felt that doctors should never/rarely share their own spiritual beliefs with patients and 67 % felt they should only do so when specifically invited. Most supported including training on provision of spiritual care within the curriculum; 40-50 % felt this should be optional and 40 % mandatory. Small group teaching was the favoured delivery method. 64 % felt that teaching should not be assessed, but among assessment methods, reflective portfolios were most favoured (30 %). Students tended to hold more polarised viewpoints but generally were more favourably disposed towards spiritual care than Faculty. Respecting patients' values and beliefs and the need for guidance in provision of spiritual care were identified in the free-text comments.
conclusionsStudents and Faculty generally recognise a spiritual dimension to health and support provision of spiritual care to appropriate patients. There is lack of consensus whether this should be delivered by doctors or left to others. Spiritual issues impacting patient management should be included in the curriculum; agreement is lacking about how to deliver and assess.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.