Spirit in Medicine

Spirit in Medicine is an excellent program to use as a first step for the new physician champion. You acquire group facilitation skills, learn group dynamics and learn what enlivens and deflates your physician colleagues. Physicians begin to trust you and your physician care initiative when they realize that they are getting something useful from your program. Spirit in Medicine was originally called Medicine in Search of Meaning and distills some of the concepts from a book by its creator (Bazan, B., Medicine in Search of Meaning, Caritas Communications, 1999). At St. Vincent Hospital I renamed the program because our local physicians resisted the “touchy-feely” name, and the rate of registrations improved. I modified a few other features for our local audience. I learned to facilitate the program from Dan Dwyar. I recommend participating in the program first. Next, lead parts of the program with a mentor before working independently.