Courses

Students will be introduced to major spiritual traditions, spiritual concepts in health, and the ways they interact. These include religious traditions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. These also include non-religious spiritual traditions such as feminist spirituality, western humanism, and secularism. Spiritual concepts include personhood, belief, hope, meaning-making, compassion, cure/healing, and suffering. Course sessions will be led by a spiritually diverse faculty, with discussion of spiritual traditions preferentially led by leaders within those traditions.

Course Director: Mona Raed MD; Delegate Alex Lion DO, MPH
Email: mraed@iuhealth.org
Phone: 440-667-3045
Primary contact for Adds/Drops: Alex Lion, Alion@iu.edu
Home campus: Indianapolis/Statewide
Type of course: Online

Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, a student will be able to:

1. Respectfully recognize the spiritual/religious beliefs, values and practices of their patients (ICS2, ICS3, ICS4).
2. Understand the role of spirituality in health care in order to provide nonjudgmental listening skills, navigate spiritual resources within health care systems and provide culturally competent care (MK 7, PBLI 2).
3. Understand the relationship between spirituality, religious beliefs, and cultural traditions (MK7, PBLI 1, SBP2).

Course activities:

Students will attend a seminar held virtually for 6 hours total Monday (1.5hrs), Wednesday(1.5hrs), and Friday(2hrs) over 4 weeks. For each day of the seminar, there will be approximately 1 hour of pre-reading.

Seminars will be led by the program directors alongside physicians, chaplains, and congregational leaders. The seminars will be interactive and involve group discussion. Students will identify spiritual tradition(s) and or concept(s) from which they are interested to develop an academic inquiry. Students will write brief literature review in which they will summarize what is known about their area of interest and what they would like to explore through their scholarly project. On the last day of class, students will give an oral presentation based on their literature review to foster group learning and provide an opportunity for students to give each other positive feedback.

Estimated time distribution (lecture, small group, online, etc.): 70% Lecture/Seminar; 30% Library/Research

Assessments:
25% Professional Development Evaluation Form (modified without patient care or medical knowledge rubric)
25% Participation - participation in class discussion is required as the seminars are designed to be interactive and to stimulate idea formation feeding into the development of their scholarly project.
25% Literature Review
25% Oral Presentation

Prerequisites: Scholarly Concentration enrollment
Interprofessional collaboration: Interprofessional faculty include physicians, chaplains, others, providing a diverse outlook on this topic.

Students will be introduced to interprofessional spiritual care through research and practice. In the first half of the course, the students will survey common research methods and measures in use when performing research concerning religion and spirituality in health. They will review the current state of research regarding religion and spirituality in primary care and medical specialties, as well as in chaplaincy, social work, nursing, and the therapeutic arts. From this segment, students will further refine their academic inquiry for their scholarly project. In the second half of the course, students will learn the national consensus guidelines for incorporation of spiritual care into medical practice. They will learn some basic ethical considerations when interacting with patient spirituality. They will have time to reflect on their own spirituality and how this plays a role in vocation.

Course Director: Alex Lion, DO, MPH; Delegate Mona Raed MD, FAAP
Email: alion@iu.edu
Phone: 317-944-8784
Primary contact for Adds/Drops: Alex Lion, Alion@iu.edu
Home campus: Indianapolis/Statewide
Type of course: Online

Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, a student will be able to:

1. Describe common religious/spiritual problems that may arise and how spirituality/religion may affect a patient’s context about their clinical care (MK7, PCI1, 3).
2. Complete a spiritual screening, take a spiritual history, and know when/how to consult spiritual services in their health care system(ICS 1, 5).
3. Recognize their own spiritual needs and the role it plays in their professional life (P1, 2, 3).
4. Describe how spiritual care is provided by interdisciplinary team members and community resources (ICS 1, 5).

Course activities:

Students will attend seminar held virtually Monday (1.5hrs), Wednesday (1.5hrs), and Friday (2hrs) for 4 weeks. For each day of the seminar, there will be approximately 1 hours of pre-reading. Seminars will be led by the program directors alongside physicians, chaplains, and other researchers in the field of spirituality and health. The first two weeks will be an interactive critical analysis of current state of the science, highlighting spirituality research published from within primary care, the major medical

specialties, and from within interprofessional fields. In the second two weeks, students will critically analyze models of spiritual care in healthcare settings. They will be introduced to the concept of interprofessional spiritual care, including how to conduct a spiritual screen, how to take a spiritual history during the patient encounter, and how to refer patients to appropriate spiritual resources. These discussions will be guided by national consensus practice guidelines on spirituality in medicine and joint commission regulations for addressing the spirituality of patients. Sessions will also introduce the students to ethical concepts surrounding interprofessional spiritual care, such as transference, counter-transference, patient boundaries, and professional development. Students will each choose one of two options for a written assignment, to lead into their scholarly project: 1. a research proposal, or 2. a personal reflection on spirituality and vocation.

Estimated time distribution (lecture, small group, online, etc.): 50% Lecture/Seminar; 50% Library/Research

Assessments:
25% Professional Development Evaluation Form
25% Participation – participation in class discussion is required as the seminars are designed to be interactive and to stimulate idea formation feeding into the development of their scholarly project.
25% Written assignment
25% Oral Presentation

Prerequisites: Scholarly Concentration enrollment
Interprofessional collaboration: The course prepares the students for interprofessional collaboration in practice. Interprofessional faculty include physicians, chaplains, and others.

Students will practice critical analysis of key areas of research literature concerning religion and spirituality in medicine. The class meets virtually, once every month to discuss a specific assigned article. The articles will also be launchpads for continued reflection on the role spirituality plays in medical vocation. The course is offered during Phase 1 Year 2 (August – March). The discussion is facilitated by the concentration directors, alongside an interdisciplinary faculty composed of physicians, chaplains, and other mentors.

Course Director: Alex Lion, DO MPH; Delegate Mona Raed MD
Email: alion@iu.edu
Phone: 317-944-8784
Primary contact for Adds/Drops: Alex Lion, Alion@iu.edu
Home campus: Indianapolis/Statewide
Type of course: Online

Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, a student will be able to:

1. Be able to outline key findings of spirituality-health research (PBL1)
2. Compare and contrast spiritual resources in different healthcare systems (SBP3)
3. Explore the role that spirituality plays in their professional life (P1, 2, 3)

Course activities:
The course meets one evening every month for 8 months, August-March during Phase 1 Year 2. Students are expected to participate in discussion at every meeting. Students should plan to attend at least 5 of the 8 meetings. We plan to hold the course virtually via zoom. If the environment is safe for in person social gathering, the concentration co-directors plan to host the meetings and provide dinner. Reading and discussion will take approximately 3-4 hours each month total, with one article discussed each month. Expectations of journal club include regular attendance, discussion of course materials during class time. Students will demonstrate completion of readings through their participation in class.

Estimated time distribution (lecture, small group, online, etc.): 50% Lecture/Seminar; 50% Library/Research

Assessments: Participation: 60%

Modified Professional Development Evaluation Form: 40% (including only PBLI,ISC, P, and SBP)

Prerequisites: Scholarly Concentration enrollment
Interprofessional collaboration:Discussions will be led by an interprofessional group, including physicians, chaplains, theologians, and other researchers in the fields of spirituality in health.