Integrating spirituality in patient care: preparing students for the challenges ahead

Over the past several decades, there has been an increased interest in the relationship among religion, spirituality, and health care. In view of this renewed awareness, about 79% of US medical schools now offer some variation of spirituality in their curriculum; 75% of these require medical students take at least one course in spirituality. In contrast to this, the most recent data indicate that only 21% of the Colleges of Pharmacy in the US offer any form of spirituality training in their curriculum. To promote spirituality in pharmacy care and better equip future pharmacists to more readily address the spiritual dimension of care in their practices, an elective course was developed and implemented. The course focused on the conceptual foundations of the role of spirituality in patients' health, the primary literature supporting this relationship, and the development and performance of methods in which to appropriately incorporate spiritual assessment and care into pharmacy practice. A detailed description of the design created, the learning objectives posited, the classroom techniques and activities employed, and the assessments used are described in this article.