Lecture: Religion and spirituality . . . in patient care and medical education

“Time to tackle the taboo in patient care and medical education”

Dr Glen Milstein (CUNY), a former visiting scholar with CIP, returns to Cambridge to deliver a lecture at the Clinical School, Addenbrookes—drawing on research undertaken with Dr Fraz Mir (Fellow and Director of Clinical Studies, King's College), & Dr Aileen Walsh (Pearl Fellow, MBIT):

The Covid-19 pandemic arrived with lethal effect into our communities and our families like a modern-day Biblical plague.  As cases soared, there were few clinical resources to treat the virus.  A new regimen of 12-hour shifts on the ward afforded us an unprecedented amount of time with patients, talking to them and building rapport. Through this close and prolonged patient contact, it became clear that religion and spirituality (R/S) were of huge importance to them, regardless of which faith they belonged to, and even when they would describe themselves as absent of faith.  These were new conversations for many on the clinical staff, which motivated us to examine what – if any – research had studied the potential utility of religion and spirituality (R/S) for patient care.

In this talk we will describe recent reviews of the last quarter century of empirical data that – with increased rigor – have consistently found religion associated with reduced all-cause mortality, healthy behaviours (less: smoking, alcohol, drugs, risky sex), blood pressure, end-of-life quality of care.  This research demonstrates a need to use assessment tools – already developed – to both learn the salience of R/S for patients, as well as to educate new medical students on the utility of R/S as one aspect of treating the whole person in the 21st Century.

We are in a new era of empirical data.  We have learned that religion and spirituality represent resources that can encourage care and sustain recovery. They can also impede care.  Our next steps are to build curricula that assess spirituality and religion, then to implement what COVID – and empirical research – has taught us to provide:  biopsychosocialspiritual care.  We look forward to your input.