The Ohio State College of Medicine has joined other medical schools around the country to teach future doctors about the role of spirituality in medical care.Nineteen of the 126 medical schools in the country are now incorporating the role of religion into the field of medicine.While many patients want their religious values addressed in medical care, the reality is only a few health care professionals are trained to do so, said Todd Hobgood, a fourth-year medical student at OSU.”Instead of viewing the patients as people with diseases, it is important that we take care of the person first and then their diseases,” he said. “An understanding of the patient’s spiritual values and needs will certainly help doctors to handle their patients in a better way.”Eileen Summit, administrator in the OSU Department of Pathology, has been free of cancer since 1987 and supports religious values in medical care.”This is the best thing possible for medical schools,” she said. “It is strength and belief that can get you through traumas like this.”The OSU Medical School received a $25,000 Spirituality and Medicine Curricular Award from the National Institute for Health Care Research for promoting spirituality in clinical care. The institute is a non-profit organization researching the interface between spirituality and medicine, said Dan Kauffman, spokesman for the institute.OSU’s College of Medicine has incorporated courses dealing with spirituality in the medical humanities and behavioral science section, which comprises 20 percent of the first-year curriculum, said Mark-David Janus, assistant professor of psychiatry and instructor of the courses. These classes address the role of religion and spirituality in medicine.”It is important for physicians who deal with people from all backgrounds to understand their needs,” he said. “A lot of students are happy to be taking these classes. Seeing patients on a regular basis has made them realize the benefit of spiritual comfort to the patient’s healing process.”A physician should encourage patients to find peace within themselves, but only to a certain extent, said Stephen Pariser, professor of clinical psychiatry.”Some separations should be kept,” he said. “Some patients need their physicians to be healers and not clerics.”Another hospital that promotes religion in medicine is the Mount Carmel Health System, said Adele Sheffieck, vice president of Mission Services for the hospital network. “A good physician will experience the pain the patient goes through and carry them through that,” she said. “This requires learning of human needs and basic respect to each other.”Resident doctors are required to take ethics programs promoting spirituality, said Dr. Richard Kyler, resident physician and chair of the ethics committee at Mount Carmel East Medical Center.”The influence of religion on medicine has always been there and it is good to hear that it is getting the acknowledgement,” he said. Other schools that practice spirituality in medical care are Georgetown University, the University of Chicago, the University of Kentucky, the University of Rochester and Brown University.