Spirituality, Religion, and Medicine Education for Internal Medicine Residents

Spirituality and religion affect patient health. This topic is often not included in medical resident education. We aimed to evaluate resident knowledge, attitudes, and skill regarding spirituality, religion, and medicine and to develop, implement, and evaluate a curriculum to improve these measures.

Internal medicine residents at a large, urban academic center were surveyed to determine their baseline knowledge, attitudes, and skill regarding spirituality and religion (37.4% response rate, n = 46/123). A lecture and discussion-based curriculum was implemented over 1 year, followed by another survey (41.4% response rate, n = 51/123); χ² statistic was used to compare pre- and postsurveys to evaluate the curriculum.

Baseline resident attitudes toward spirituality, religion, and medicine were high with most agreeing chaplains are valuable in patient care (93.5%) and that patient spiritual and religious beliefs can affect health (93.5%). Resident self-reported knowledge and skill were low with few knowing the training chaplains receive (4.3%) or reporting competence taking a spiritual history (15.2%). After the curriculum, resident self-reported knowledge increased regarding the role of chaplains (56.5%-80.4%, P = .011) and the training chaplains receive (4.3%-27.5%, P = .002). No significant postcurriculum change was seen in attitudes or skill.

Most internal medicine residents have positive attitudes toward spirituality, religion, and medicine. They do not have adequate knowledge or skill to care for patients in this area, however. Implementation of a curriculum in spirituality, religion, and medicine improved resident self-reported knowledge. Future work should focus on revising the curriculum to better improve resident knowledge and skill.