Whole-person care has been important throughout the 150-year history of Loma Linda University and Hospital system (now Loma Linda University Health - LLUH). Since the 1950s, the motto is, “To make man whole.” However, up to 2011 there was no corporate-wide understanding of whole-person care, or a model to guide teaching and practice. Connected to this has been the question of whether spiritual care and whole person care were similar categories of understanding.Objective / Methods: In 2011 a group of nine researchers and clinicians designed a research/development project for the purpose of developing a whole-person care model to guide all teaching and practice at LLUH. A consultation group of approximately 300 researchers, clinicians, students and staff of LLUH were invited to give feedback during the course of the project through online avenues and group forums. This larger group was open to all interested people throughout LLUH. The research / development group considered all comments, critiques and suggestions made by the larger consultation group, with all work public to both groups.Results / Conclusions: From the process emerged the first draft of a whole-person care model in March of 2012, with the following qualities: measureable, memorable, practical, flexible, and teachable. After several pilot tests, the model was adopted by LLUH as the model to guide all teaching and practice at LLUH. Since that time, the model has been integrated into the orientation of new employees (clinical and university), the teaching practices of three schools (medicine, nursing, and religion) and is being integrated into the remaining four schools by 2014. It is also guiding the development of the online wellness website for the corporation. Finally, it is used to guide two new developments for the School of Medicine: 1) a Narrative Project designed for the first year School of Medicine students, and 2) the Integrative Whole-Person Care Simulation Labs developed for second year School of Medicine students.The poster presentation will describe the whole-person care model itself, the research/development process behind it, and give examples of how it has transformed teaching and practice in the university and clinical/hospital arenas.
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
