Religiosity and Spirituality in Psychiatry Residency Programs: Why, What, and How to Teach?

Objective: To propose a core curriculum for religiosity and spirituality (R/S) in clinical practice for psychiatry residency programs based on the available evidence.

Methods: After performing a review of studies on the implementation of R/S curricula and identifying the most commonly taught topics and teaching methods, an R/S curriculum was developed based on the most prevalent strategies, as well as recommendations from psychiatric associations, resulting in a fairly comprehensive R/S curriculum that is simple enough to be easily implemented, even where there is a shortage of time and of faculty expertise.

Results: The curriculum is a twelve-hour course (six 2-hour sessions). The topics include: concepts and evidence regarding R/S and mental health relationships, taking a spiritual history/case formulation, historical aspects and research, main local R/S traditions, differential diagnosis between spiritual experiences and mental disorders, and R/S integration in the approach to treatment. The teaching methods include: classes, group discussions, studying guidelines, taking spiritual histories, panels, field visits, case presentations, and clinical supervision. The evaluation of residents includes: taking a spiritual history and formulating an R/S case. The program evaluation includes: quantitative and qualitative written feedback.

Conclusions: A brief and feasible core R/S curriculum for psychiatry residency programs is proposed; further investigation of the impact of this educational intervention is needed.