GW Spirituality and Health Pioneer Publishes Paper on Development of the Field

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Newswise WASHINGTON (Feb. 18, 2014) While spirituality played a significant role in health care for centuries, technological advances in the 20th century overshadowed this more human side of medicine. Christina Puchalski, M.D.94, RESD97, founder and director of the George Washington University (GW) Institute for Spirituality and Health and professor of medicine at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), and co-authors published a commentary in Academic Medicine on the history of spirituality and health, the movement to reclaim medicines spiritual roots, and the future of this field.

Spirituality, defined as a persons search for meaning, purpose, and connection, is now incorporated into the curricula of more than 75 percent of U.S. medical schools curricula that was developed and implemented first at SMHS. In 2012, Oxford published the first textbook on spirituality and health. National and International organizations have recognized the role of spirituality in patient-centered care. This didnt happen without the tireless efforts of Puchalski, her colleagues at GW including Jim Blatt, M.D., director of the Clinical Learning and Simulation Skills Center and professor of medicine at SMHS, the support she received at GW, and grants from organizations such as the John Templeton Foundation.

The integration of spirituality in to our medical culture is crucial for creating compassionate, patient-centered physicians, said Puchalski. It changes our health system from merely emphasizing physical suffering. Rather, physicians are taught to respond to all patients suffering with compassion, recognizing that health is more than the absence of disease. This is when healing, defined as patients ability to find hope and meaning even in the midst of suffering, can occur.

The Academic Medicine paper includes:

- A report on the National Competencies in Spirituality and Health (NCSH), which was created at a consensus conference of faculty from seven medical schools and is being reported in the paper for the first time. The NCSH will organize efforts in this developing field within medical education and in national and international organizations.

- Information on the GW Institute for Spirituality and Health-Templeton Reflection Rounds Initiative, a program supported by the John Templeton Foundation. The program provides clerkship students the opportunity to reflect on patient encounters and develop their own inner resources to address the suffering of others.

- Commentary on the future direction of the field of spirituality and health.

In the coming years, we hope the field of spirituality and health will have a more global reach, with a focus on interprofessional education, said Puchalski. We also anticipate a full integration of spirituality and health education: From the first year of medical school, into residency, and continuing into professional development.

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GW Spirituality and Health Pioneer Publishes Paper on Development of the Field

International Space Station Takes Out The Trash

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CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) The International Space Station just put the trash out, so to speak, releasing its orbiting lab and leaving it with one less capsule on its hands.

A commercial cargo ship ended its five-week visit Tuesday morning. NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins used the space stations big robot arm to release the capsule, called Cygnus, as the orbiting lab sailed 260 miles above the South Atlantic.

Cygnus is filled with garbage and will burn up Wednesday when it plunges through the atmosphere, over the Pacific.

Orbital Sciences Corp. launched the capsule last month from Virginia under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA. The Cygnus delivered 3,000 pounds of goods, including belated Christmas gifts for the six-man crew and hundreds of ants for a student experiment.

The ants are still aboard the space station. Theyll return to Earth aboard another companys cargo ship, the SpaceX Dragon.

SpaceX or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., based in Southern California will launch its next Dragon from Cape Canaveral on March 16 with a fresh load of supplies.

NASA is paying Orbital Sciences and SpaceX to keep the space station stocked. Russia, Japan and Europe also take turns making deliveries.

The SpaceX Dragon is the only craft capable of safely returning a pile of items, now that NASAs space shuttles are retired. The Russian Soyuz crew capsule has just enough room for three astronauts and a few odds and ends.

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International Space Station Takes Out The Trash

Private Cygnus Spacecraft Departs Space Station

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A commercial Cygnus cargo-carrying spacecraft departed the International Space Station on Tuesday, heading for a fiery finale over the Pacific Ocean to help clear the outpost of trash at the conclusion of the first operational resupply run by Orbital Sciences Corp.

The automated solar-powered spaceship disengaged from the space station's robotic arm at 1141 GMT (6:41 a.m. EST) as the duo sailed 260 miles over the South Atlantic Ocean east of Argentina.

Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Koichi Wakata monitored the activities from inside the space station's windowed cupola module. Hopkins was assigned the job of detaching the robot arm from Cygnus.

Moments later, astronauts inside the space station sent commands for the Cygnus spacecraft to fire thrusters and fly away from the complex. It cleared the space station's "keep out" sphere, an imaginary safety zone around the outpost, a few minutes after separating from the robot arm. [Photos: Orbital Sciences' 1st Cygnus Cargo Mission to Space Station]

The Cygnus vehicle's pressurized logistics module is packed with bags of trash and unnecessary gear loaded by the space station's six-person crew. Like cargo vehicles supplied by Europe, Japan and Russia, the Cygnus spacecraft is designed to burn up during re-entry, disposing of garbage over a remote stretch of the South Pacific Ocean.

Re-entry between New Zealand and South America is scheduled for around 1820 GMT (1:20 p.m. EST) Wednesday after a pair of braking maneuvers to slow the Cygnus spacecraft's velocity and lower its orbit.

The last day of the Cygnus mission will be controlled from Orbital Sciences' headquarters in Dulles, Va.

The Cygnus spacecraft is on the first of eight operationally cargo delivery flights under a $1.9 billion commercial resupply contract between Orbital Sciences and NASA. The space agency has a similar deal with SpaceX for a dozen missions worth $1.6 billion.

The mission delivered nearly 2,800 pounds of supplies to the space station when it arrived Jan. 12, three days after launching from Wallops Island, Va., aboard an Antares rocket.

The deliveries included an ant colony for students to observe how the ants behave in space, an experiment in drug-resistant bacteria, and investigations into how liquids slosh inside containers in microgravity and the behavior of fires in space.

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Private Cygnus Spacecraft Departs Space Station