First year medical students at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, are learning how to examine their own spirituality as well as that of their patients. Similarly, the Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland, is teaching its medical students about the world's major religious traditions. Harvard Medical School's students are learning how to take a spiritual history and to better communicate with patients about their spiritual concerns.
New Directions in Medical Schools
What's going on? Why are these medical schools as well as almost half the medical schools in the United States offering courses on spirituality to their students? For many years, conventional wisdom held that spirituality – that is, belief in a higher power – was irrelevant or even harmful to health.
However, recent scientific research on this topic has found just the opposite. Indeed, over the past several decades there has been an explosion of research showing that certain spiritual beliefs and practices are beneficial to health and can even help people reduce the risk of developing a number of serious illnesses. |
