The Role of Religion in Physician Outlook on Death, Dying, and End of Life Care

One of the many roles a physician provides to their patients is compassion and comfort, which includes tending to any psychological, spiritual, and religious needs the patient has. The goal of this pilot study was to explore whether religious or spiritual values of physicians at an urban academic hospital affect how physicians care for and communicate with their patients, especially when dealing with death, dying, and end-of-life matters. After surveying 111 inpatient physicians at an academic hospital, we found that 92% of physicians are extremely or somewhat comfortable having end-of-life discussions. We also found that physician religiosity and spirituality are not necessarily required for discussing death and dying and that the religious and spiritual values of the physician do not correlate with their ability to have end-of-life conversations with the patient. We found no difference between years in practice and comfort discussing religion and spirituality, though we did find that, of the physicians who believe they are comfortable talking to patients about religion or belief systems, most of them had more than five end-of-life patients in the past 12 months. Lastly, referrals to Palliative Care or pastoral services were not impacted by the physician’s religious or spiritual beliefs. Future studies can explore how religious beliefs may more subtly influence physicians’ interactions with patients, patient satisfaction, and physician well-being and resilience.