Can You Teach Medical and Nursing Students About Spirituality?

Spirituality is a central principle in complementary and alternative medical prac-tice. Important spiritual issues, which are personal to the patient as well as to the practitioner, can be taught and modeled. This article describes a lecture and small group-based curriculum that can be adapted to teach spirituality. Medical and nursing students were jointly taught using this curriculum. They learned to take a spiritual history using one of three models, to reflect on clinical and personal situations involving spirituality, and to present evidence on the clinical relevance of spirituality. Samples from the syllabus including cases and references are presented. Spirituality is most broadly defined as &dquo;one’s relationship with the absolute&dquo; (Dossey, 2000). Otherwise stated, it is a domain of human existence that deals with one’s search for meaning and purpose in life (Frankl, 1984). Although 20th century medical education has traditionally avoided the realm of the metaphysical, or more specifically the world of spirituality and religion, it is an increasingly relevant topic in patient care and medical practice (Post et al., 2000). Nursing education has been more responsiv