Abstract
Family medicine is redefining itself in the wake of the Future of Family Medicine Project, the move to the Patient-Centered Medical Home, and the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s emphasis on primary care. This effort has included representing family doctors as physicians who “care for the whole person” and who “specialize in you.” Many patients believe that whole person care involves attention to spirituality and wish to share their beliefs in the medical encounter. This national survey investigated whether a random sample of family medicine residents were willing to address spirituality upon patient request. With varying degrees of willingness, most doctors said that they would discuss patient beliefs if asked. Denominational preference, residency training in addressing spirituality, and self-rated spirituality were all predictive of the strength of reported willingness. These results indicate that training in addressing spirituality may create residents more likely to discuss the topic in clinical practice.
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Acknowledgments
This project was funded in part by the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dwight D Eisenhower Army Medical Center and the Department of Clinical Investigations at Madigan Army Medical Center. The opinions and assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Medical Department of the U.S. Army or the U.S. Army at large.
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Saguil, A., Fitzpatrick, A.L. & Clark, G. Are Residents Willing to Discuss Spirituality with Patients?. J Relig Health 50, 279–288 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9467-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9467-7