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Approaching a patient holistically will require you to address the needs of the whole person. Spirituality, which may present in a variety of ways, encompasses how a person finds meaning and connection in their life. Additionally, attention to and awareness of your own emotional and spiritual needs may yield greater empathy and resilience.

Overview | 8 minutes

Activities
Videos
Podcasts
Readings

Activities

Learning Objectives

Learners will reflect on their own religious and/or spiritual beliefs.
Learners will learn how to assess spirituality of patients and the relevance to our clinical work.

Part 1

Using the FICA Spiritual Assessment Tool please answer the following:

Self-reflection: How would you answer these questions for yourself? How uncomfortable or comfortable are you discussing these questions with patients?
Write a paragraph: Why do you think it's relevant and important to inquire about spirituality in our clinical work? What resources are available to help you have these conversations?

Part 2

Choose 1 video or podcast from the collection provided and answer the following:

Which video or podcast did you select?
After reviewing, what struck you about what you viewed and how will this impact your future practice as a physician?

Part 3

Written reflection, please answer the following:

Remember a time or imagine a time when you faced a serious, potentially life-threatening health condition. Using the FICA Spiritual Assessment Tool write answers to the questions based on your own history and beliefs. Reflect on how comfortable you would be using a tool like this with patients. What resources could you enlist to help facilitate these conversations?

Films

The Big Sick | 120 minutes
Available on Amazon Prime

Kumail is a Pakistani comic, who meets an American graduate student named Emily at one of his stand-up shows. As their relationship blossoms, he soon becomes worried about what his traditional Muslim parents will think of her. When Emily suddenly comes down with an illness that leaves her in a coma, Kumail finds himself developing a bond with her deeply concerned mother and father.

The Farewell | 100 minutes
Available on Amazon Prime

Billi's family returns to China under the guise of a fake wedding to stealthily say goodbye to their beloved matriarch -- the only person that doesn't know she only has a few weeks to live.

Extremis | 24 minutes
Available on Netflix

Witness the heavy emotions that come with end-of-life decisions as doctors, patients and families in a hospital intensive care unit face harrowing choices.

Podcasts

What Matters in the End | 51 minutes
Atul Gawande | On Being with Krista Tippett

“What does a good day look like?” That question — when asked of both terminally-ill and healthy people — has transformed Atul Gawande’s practice of medicine. A citizen physician and writer, Gawande is on the frontiers of human agency and meaning in light of what modern medicine makes possible. For the millions of people who have read his book Being Mortal, he’s also opened new conversations about the ancient human question of death and what it might have to do with life.

The Difference Between Curing and Healing | 52 minutes
Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen | On Being with Krista Tippett

Rachel Naomi Remen’s lifelong struggle with Crohn’s disease has shaped her practice of medicine, and she in turn is helping to reshape the art of healing. “The way we deal with loss shapes our capacity to be present to life more than anything else,” she says. And each of us, with our wounds and our flaws, has exactly what’s needed to help repair the part of the world that we can see and touch.

Hope Wears Sneakers | 34 minutes
David Fajgenbaum | Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

This is the story of one young doctor’s race against the clock as he searches for a cure for his own rare disease that brought him to the brink of death too many times to count. In this episode, Kate and David Fajgenbaum speak about facing impossible odds and how love can turn hope into action.

What the Research Shows | 33 minutes
George Fitchett & Karen Steinhauser | Humankind: Voices of Hope and Humanity - The Spiritual Care Podcast

Health care chaplaincy has increasingly been a subject of evidence-based research: What do spiritual care providers do? How do patients and their families respond to a chaplain’s services? Does spiritual care affect levels of patient anxiety and other forms of distress? To what extent do people facing illness also experience spiritual struggle (e.g. feeling abandoned by God)? In this episode of the podcast, we review findings of some recent studies by the American Cancer Society, the Mayo Clinic, Pew and others sources.

Readings

Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies that I've Loved | Kate Bowler

A divinity professor and young mother with a Stage IV cancer diagnosis explores the pain and joy of living without certainty.

FICA Spiritual Assessment Tool

FICA is an acronym that can be used to remember what is asked in a spiritual history. It includes:

Faith or Beliefs
Importance or influence
Community
Address

My Grandfather's Blessings: Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging | Rachel Naomi Remen

In My Grandfather's Blessings, Rachel Naomi Remen, a physician and master storyteller, uses her luminous stories to remind us of the power of our kindness and the joy of being alive.

The Integration of the “Spirituality in Medicine” Curriculum Into the Osteopathic Communication Curriculum at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (2014)

In this 2014 Academic Medicine article, Drs. Talley and Magie discuss their "Spirituality in Medicine" Curriculum and outcomes including student competencies in sensitivity to patients' spiritual and cultural needs, assessing patients' and their own spiritual needs and appropriately using chaplain services.