Cleveland Medical School Programs Incorporate Spirituality As A Prescription For Healing

Jet, April 3, 2000

The medical community is fast discovering that a dose of spirituality can be good medicine for sick patients.

Recent research has concluded that religious people are less depressed, have healthier immune systems and deal better with addictions.

And a 1998 Duke University study of people older than 65 found that those who participated in religious activities were 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure.

Uniting the health benefits of spirituality with the practice of modern medicine, special programs at two Cleveland medical institutions are teaching doctors how to go beyond taking their patients' pulse and medical history and help them tap into the healing power of faith.

Psychiatric residents at the Cleveland Clinic, a research hospital, and medical students at nearby Case Western Reserve University are learning how to discuss spiritual issues and to use faith to help their patients heal.

The goal of the two programs, which are funded by separate grants from the Philadelphia-based John Templeton Foundation, is to show patients that their doctors care about more than just their physical healing.

"Hope implies faith," said Dr. Scott H. Frank, director of the patient spirituality program at Case Western. "I try to teach students that the role of every patient encounter should be for [patients] to have more hope than they came in with, have more hope that they will get better soon."

However, Frank, a 44-year-old Roman Catholic, notes, "If patients don't list religion [as a coping mechanism], we don't teach the students to say, `Well, you might want to think about religion as one way to cope.' We are not proselytizing."

In the Cleveland programs, doctors and clergy discuss with students the conflicts and tenets of various faiths. And students sometimes accompany a chaplain on a bedside visit to get a feel for a patient's spirituality.

The hospital's program for physicians preparing to become psychiatrists also probes the traditional attempt by psychiatrists to explain behavior without regard to faith.

"We need to help physicians, residents in particular, to appreciate religion as part and parcel of the cultural experience that person has lived," said Dr. David S. Rue, who directs the Cleveland Clinic program. "Psychiatrists need to be sensitized and appreciative of a patient's way of coping, which could include religion and spirituality."

Robin Baines, 24, a second-year Case Western medical student from Buffalo, NY, said her school's course on spirituality will help her when she becomes a primary-care physician.

"I will be open with them," she said. "I can work within their framework of coping." Baines, a Baptist, also noted that she would be open to pray with her patients if that's what they desire.

While some doctors may feel uncomfortable discussing religion, for those doctors willing to consider making religion--and prayer--part of a doctor's appointment, the result can be positive, Frank said.

"There's increased job satisfaction, because you do relate to the patient on a more personal, individual basis," he said. "For those who do pursue this, there is a great sense of fulfillment."