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Incorporating and Teaching Spirituality into Medical Education: An Overview of the Field and Possible Educational Strategies

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Spirituality, Religiousness and Health

Part of the book series: Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach ((RELSPHE,volume 4))

Abstract

Resulting from the increasing scientific evidence on the correlations between spirituality and health (S/H), important institutions such as the World Health Organization, American College of Physicians and Association of American Medical Colleges have already formally recommended the approach of spirituality in clinical practice. In addition, most US and UK medical schools have already included S/H contents in their curriculum, students and medical teachers believe this issue is important to clinical practice and there are several studies showing promising results on the incorporation of S/H courses or strategies to medical students. This chapter will provide a brief panorama on the S/H field, aiming to bring an update overview of the development of the field, the current scientific evidence, the most common educational strategies and initiatives used, the S/H curriculum goals, objectives and general competences. Future challenges of this field are to create an international consensus including the minimum required competences that a medical student should learn concerning S/H, to increase the number of S/H content worldwide and to provide high-quality and continuing training for teachers and students.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

    Giancarlo Lucchetti & Alessandra Lamas Granero Lucchetti

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Lidia Maria Gonçalves

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira (IMIP), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

    Alberto Gorayeb de Carvalho Ferreira

  4. Instituto de Medicina do Comportamento Eurípedes Barsanulfo, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

    Jorge Cecilio Daher Jr

  5. Central de Medicamentos de Alto Custo Juarez Barbosa, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

    Jorge Cecilio Daher Jr

  6. Research Group on Medical Education, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

    Alessandra Lamas Granero Lucchetti

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  1. Giancarlo Lucchetti
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  2. Lidia Maria Gonçalves
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  3. Alberto Gorayeb de Carvalho Ferreira
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  5. Alessandra Lamas Granero Lucchetti
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil

    Giancarlo Lucchetti

  2. Institute of Psychiatry, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mario Fernando Prieto Peres  & Rodolfo Furlan Damiano  & 

  3. Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mario Fernando Prieto Peres

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Lucchetti, G., Gonçalves, L.M., de Carvalho Ferreira, A.G., Daher, J.C., Lucchetti, A.L.G. (2019). Incorporating and Teaching Spirituality into Medical Education: An Overview of the Field and Possible Educational Strategies. In: Lucchetti, G., Prieto Peres, M.F., Damiano, R.F. (eds) Spirituality, Religiousness and Health. Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21221-6_15

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