Advancing Spiritual Care Through Research

Interprofessional Training Opportunity, GWISH, 10-12 July 2018

The George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health announces a new training opportunity for the summer of 2018, wherein clinicians and chaplains can better inform one another about their work and provide enhanced patient care cognizant of both physical and spiritual needs. From the request for applications, which you can find linked here:

Empirical evidence, patient and family experience, and theoretical frameworks support the critical role spirituality and spiritual care plays in the care of patients, particularly those with chronic and serious illness. Health care providers also recognized the growing need of spiritual care but identify lack of training as a barrier. To bridge this gap, The George Washington Institute for spirituality and health (GWish), in partnership with City of Hope and Fetzer Institute developed a global Spiritual care training program entitled “Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum (ISPEC)”.

ISPEC is the first curriculum developed at the global level and offers a theoretically and research-grounded curriculum for teaching inter-professional spiritual care. The goal of the ISPEC project is to develop participants as experts who will take a leadership role in their individual institutions, share information with others, engage colleagues to take our on-line ISPEC course, and impact the quality of care by integrating spiritual care as an important element of care.

This training program consists of an innovative hybrid of online resources and Train-the-Trainer program and will prepare both clinicians and chaplains to identify and address patients’ spiritual needs and provide resources as an integral part of their practice.

The selected teams will participate in a 2.5-day training program that will include lectures, case study reviews, and panel discussions. Participants will receive post-course mentoring from leading faculty and all participants will be followed at 6 and 12 months post-course to monitor and support their progress. The first training program will be held on July 10-12, 2018 at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

There will only be 60 participants selected for the first training program through a highly competitive application review process.

Admission into the ISPEC program will waive the costs for;

• Free Registration

• All course supplies including; syllabus, workbook, and resources

• Breakfast, lunch, and snacks

• 16.75 Continuing Education Credits (CME, Nursing credit hours, CEU)

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