THE SIDNEY PROJECT IN SPIRITUALITY AND MEDICINE AND COMPASSIONATE CARETM: TRANSFORMING MEDICAL EDUCATION

Steele Auditorium

Objective. The objective of the Sidney ProjectTM presentation is to educate the audience about the efficacy of a program in spirituality and medicine and compassionate care that can change the culture of medicine and the way that residents think about the often taboo topics of spirituality and medicine and compassionate care. Background. The Sidney ProjectTM was created over three years ago and began as a pilot program at two hospitals: University Hospital in Tamarac, Florida and Broward Hospital, Ft. Lauderdale. Since its inception the program has grown to include additional hospitals who have utilized the curricula in the program on an ongoing basis. As the program has grown, more residents have had the opportunity to be exposed to the concepts of spirituality and medicine and compassionate care and have learned hands on tools for implementing these topics in patient care. In addition, the program has provided for a "safe place" for residents to discuss topics that are not usually spoken about. The program was created in honor of my dad, Sidney, who lost his life needlessly in a hospital setting. Methods. The methods used included preliminary surveys that would distributed to participants to examine their beliefs about the importance of spirituality and medicine and compassionate care in patient care, self-care, spiritual assessments, and previous exposure to the topics. A post-survey was also distributed to participants at the end of the program (a year later.) In addition, each lecture that was given also received evaluations from the participants. The data has been analyzed by an independent observer and culled. Results. The results indicate that an overwhelming number of participants have changed their mind (positively) about the importance of integrating spiritual topics with their patients as a result of the program. They also indicated that they "understand the importance of compassionate care". 95% of participants learned strategies to implement compassionate care, and participants also learned the how to's of a spiritual assessment as an important tool in the patient history taking process. Conclusion. I am pleased that the program has been implemented as part of clinical education because it needs to be integrated in medical education for residency training. The program has been so successful that at one site, Osceola Medical Center, the residents who participated in the first year of training in the program requested a second year of training so currently I am providing sessions with the new residents as well as the second year residents. I believe that this speaks volumes about the quality and validity of the program. Grants. I received a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for this research.