Health care providers are no longer afforded more than a few minutes to spend with patients during office visits, and counseling for prescriptions is also rushed. The challenge to physicians and pharmacists is also increased by the growing diversity of the population. Health care providers are expected to be sensitive to individual differences, and attend to a wide variety of patient needs including mind, body and soul. Therefore good care requires much more than traditional medical training. Physicians and pharmacists today must also receive training in the behavioral and spiritual aspects of life.
Human beings have two dimensions, a spiritual dimension and a physical dimension.
To treat a patient as a whole, health care providers should focus on both spiritual and physical dimensions of their patients. Spirituality in Patient Care is a course that teaches students to utilize a mature understanding of spirituality in their interactions with patients. To achieve the goals of the Spirituality in Patient Care curriculum, a variety of learning experiences will be offered to osteopathic and pharmacy students over the course of four years. Material in the first two years will be taught through a combination of lectures, readings, case studies, small group discussions, and Internet queries. During the third and fourth year, students will practice what they learned in the classroom in clinical settings.