Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.
Int J Psychiatry Med. 2010;40(4):391-8. doi: 10.2190/PM.40.4.c.
No systematic information exists on what U.S. medical schools are teaching on spirituality and health or on the attitudes of faculty toward inclusion of this subject in the medical curriculum. We systematically surveyed U.S. medical school deans and assessed both attitudes about and the extent to which spirituality is addressed in medical school curricula.
The responses to a questionnaire were solicited from deans representing 122 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education. Completed surveys were received from 85% (n = 104), with 94% (n = 115) responding to the primary question. Outcomes were proportion of medical schools with curricular content on spirituality and attitudes of deans toward such material.
Ninety percent (range 84%-90%) of medical schools have courses or content on spirituality and health (S&H), 73% with content in required courses addressing other topics and 7% with a required course dedicated to S&H. Although over 90% indicate that patients emphasize spirituality in their coping and health care, only 39% say that including S&H is important. When asked if their institution needs more S&H curricular content, 43% indicated they did; however, even if funding and training support were available, only 25% would open additional curricular time. National policy statements, established competencies, or methods to evaluate student competencies in S&H were generally considered unimportant.
Most U.S. medical schools have curricular content on S&H, although this varies greatly in scope. Despite acknowledging its importance to patients, the majority of deans are uncertain about including spirituality and do not think more content is needed.
目前尚不清楚美国的医学院在教授哪些关于灵性和健康的知识，以及教师对在医学课程中纳入这一主题的态度。我们系统地调查了美国医学院院长，并评估了他们对医学课程中灵性问题的态度和涉及程度。
我们向 122 所获得医学教育联络委员会（Liaison Committee for Medical Education）认证的美国医学院院长发放问卷，共收到 104 位（85%）院长的回复，其中 115 位（94%）院长回答了主要问题。调查结果为有多少医学院开设了灵性与健康课程以及院长对这些材料的态度。
90%（84%-90%）的医学院开设了灵性与健康（S&H）课程或相关内容，73%的医学院将 S&H 内容纳入其他主题的必修课程，7%的医学院开设了 S&H 必修课程。尽管超过 90%的院长表示患者在应对和医疗保健中强调灵性，但只有 39%的院长表示纳入 S&H 很重要。当被问及他们的机构是否需要更多的 S&H 课程内容时，43%的院长表示需要；然而，即使有资金和培训支持，也只有 25%的院长会增加额外的课程时间。国家政策声明、既定的能力标准或评估学生 S&H 能力的方法通常被认为不重要。
大多数美国医学院都有关于 S&H 的课程内容，尽管其范围差异很大。尽管院长们承认灵性对患者很重要，但大多数院长对纳入灵性持不确定态度，并且不认为需要更多的内容。
