To evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual care training on medical students’ self-reported competencies.

This is a quasi-experimental (controlled and non-randomized) study including 115 Brazilian medical students. Participants were enrolled into 2 groups: fourth-year students (n = 64) who received spiritual care training and sixth-year students (n = 51) who did not receive this training – control group (i.e., usual teaching). Participants answered a self-reported Spiritual Care Competence Scale. Comparisons between groups were performed and effect sizes were reported.

Providing a spiritual care training resulted in significantly higher self-reported scores for the dimensions of “Assessment” (d = 0.99), “Improvement of care” (d = 0.69), “Counseling (d = 0.88),” “Referral” (d = 0.75), and “Total Spiritual Care” (d = 1.044) as compared to the control group. Likewise, 21 out of 27 items of the Spiritual Care Competence Scale were significantly higher for the intervention group, presenting effect sizes (d) ranging between 0.428 and 1.032.

Medical students receiving spiritual care training showed greater self-reported competencies as compared to those in the usual teaching. These results reinforce the importance of promoting spirituality teaching in medical schools.