Opiniões, atitudes e crenças frente à utilização da espiritualidade e religiosidade na prática clínica de graduandos da odontologia

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the perception, attitudes, and beliefs of undergraduate dentistry students at the School of Medical and Health Sciences of Juiz de Fora-MG (SUPREMA-JF) regarding the use of spirituality/religiosity (S/R) in clinical practice. This is an observational, cross-sectional, descriptive, epidemiological study with a quantitative approach, which was conducted from August to December 2024. The sample consisted of 404 students who were enrolled and attending all periods of the dentistry course at the aforementioned institution. The Network for Research Spirituality and Health (NERSH) questionnaire adapted for dentistry undergraduates was used to collect data. The data obtained were analyzed using absolute and relative frequencies, means, and standard deviations. Logistic regression models were constructed to investigate which factors were associated with students' opinions about S/R in clinical practice. A linear regression was also performed with the Satisfaction with Life scale score as the dependent variable. A p-value < 0.05 with a 95% CI was adopted as significant. Of the 404 undergraduate students enrolled, 83.2% (336) responded fully to the NERSH questionnaire. Participants were mostly female (66.4%), single (89.9%) with an average age of 22.22  3.60 years. Most participants were moderately to very spiritual and religious (69.6% and 64.9%, respectively). Most students believed that S/R had an important influence on patient health (61%), the healing process (60.7%), but not on oral health (25.3%). A large number of students reported that they would feel comfortable discussing E/R concerns (69.9%), 49.6% believed it was appropriate to ask about a patient's S/R, and 65.4% believed it was appropriate to talk about their own beliefs when the patient asked (65.4%) or when the dentist felt it was appropriate (14.9%). Most undergraduates have never inquired about spiritual issues in their clinical consultations (78.0%) and in clinical scenarios such as a frightening diagnosis (25.1%), dental surgery (45.1%), anxiety and depression (28.1%), routine checkup (52.5%), dental phobia (36.7%) and minor illnesses (40.3%). Seven out of ten students reported barriers that discourage them from discussing S/R with patients/patients’ relatives. The most common barriers were concern about offending patients/relatives (47.9%), fear of lacking Professional neutrality (33.3%), general discomfort with discussing religious matters (30.4%), insufficient knowledge/training (20.2%) and “it is not my task” (20.2%). Only 15.2% of students had any formal training on this topic (39,6% on the university, 35,8% on the religious temple and 24,6% reading books or attending congresses). Thus, it can be concluded that, based on the attitudes and beliefs expressed by students, spirituality is still a topic little explored in the clinical context, with a lack of training in this area, which results in discomfort when addressing this issue with patients. It was found that S/R aspects should be addressed in the context of training and preparation of professionals to deal with S/R related to clinical practice.