title: Exploring the spiritual/religious dimension of patients: a timely opportunity for personal and professional reflection for graduating medical students.
abstract: Teaching about spirituality in medical school training is lacking. Spirituality is a dimension of humanity that can put experiences of health and illness into a meaningful context. Medical students might benefit from understanding how spirituality is an important element in learning to care for patients. Spirituality also provides a context for medical students to explore their own motivations for doctoring. This article describes a longitudinal senior elective course at the end of their medical school training to delve into matters of religion/spirituality surrounding patient care. The authors pose their own perspectives on what both students and faculty gained from the experience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Van Etten, Building, 2A30, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA, mimi.mcevoy@einstein.yu.edu.
authors.forename: Mimi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McEvoy
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gorski
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Swiderski
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alderman
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D005178:Faculty; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D005791:Patient Care / Q000523:psychology; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012577:Schools, Medical; D029181:Spirituality; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States