GWish-Templeton Reflective Rounds: Sustaining Spirituality-Based Competencies in Medical Education

GWish proposes a second cycle of GWish-Templeton Reflective Rounds (G-TRR) to build on the 2011-2012 pilot (G-TRR I). Continuing the 16-year Templeton/GWish commitment, G-TRR seeks full integration of spirituality in medical school, incorporating spirituality into rounds, a core format for medical education and patient care, to address students’ personal/professional formation by exploring spirituality in the context of self and patient care. G-TRR I created a rounds curriculum, issued a competitive RFP, awarded grants to 8 schools, trained G-TRR faculty, and piloted the reflective rounds with approximately 800 third-year medical students. Mixed methods evaluation validated the project’s efficacy. Quantitative trends demonstrated students’ improved ability to use spirituality with patients and identify their own spiritual resources. Qualitatively, the majority of respondents conveyed personal/professional growth, noting that G-TRR I reinforced their sense of calling. GWish will leverage G-TRR I’s best practices, increase the number of schools from eight to eighteen (15% of all medical schools), and intensify the facilitator training and evaluation in a $568,029 thirty-month expansion. G-TRR II goals include building the evidence base for the reflection format, working with schools in their clerkships and curricula, creating a cadre of faculty to serve as Reflection Mentors, and refining training materials. Research from G-TRR I/II (competency based) will provide enough data to create a statistically significant, replicable curricular program that can be adopted by all schools, fully integrating spirituality into medical school curricula. By reinvigorating the call to serve and spiritual awareness of hundreds of medical students, G-TRR I/II will have an enduring impact on students’ understanding of patients’ full illness experience (biopsychosocial-spiritual) and be open to the transformative potential of the physician-patient encounter.