Mission & Vision | Faculty & Staff | Newsletters | In the news | A message from Dr. Puchalski
Christina M. Puchalski, M.D.
GWish Founder and Executive Director
(202) 994-6220
hcscmp@gwumc.edu
Christina Puchalski, MD, MS is the Executive Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, Washington, DC, and a Professor of Medicine and Health Sciences at The George Washington University School of Medicine, where she has pioneered novel and effective educational and clinical strategies to address the spiritual concerns common in patients facing illness.
Dr. Puchalski is an active clinician, board-certified in Internal Medicine and Palliative Care. Dr. Puchalski has demonstrated leadership in research and education in the integration of spiritual care across disciplines. She has received numerous awards including the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey's Faculty Humanism in Medicine Award. She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and was recently inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha (AΩA) medical honor society as well as awarded the 2009 George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Award.
Dr. Puchalski is on the editorial board of several Palliative Care journals and chair or coauthor of several major conferences and initiatives in spirituality and health. She co-leads an annual retreat for healthcare professionals; she also works with medical student education focused on how to support their call to a profession of service and compassion.
Dr. Puchalski has been principle investigator or co-principle investigator in several research projects in spirituality including evaluation of a spiritual assessment tool she developed which is currently used widely in a variety of clinical settings; an NIH funded study on spirituality and will to live in HIV-AIDS patients; and an innovative study to integrate spirituality into healthcare settings called INSPIR. Dr. Puchalski developed and was PI for an awards program in spirituality and health education since 1996 which resulted in a model curriculum in spirituality and health. In a collaborative project with City of Hope and GWish, Dr. Puchalski co-led an initiative to create national spiritual care guidelines for palliative care.
Dr. Puchalski has a background as a basic scientist at NIH, thus bridging the art and science of medicine in her work. She is widely published in journals with work ranging from basic research in biochemistry to issues in ethics, culture and spirituality and healthcare. She has authored numerous chapters in books and edited and authored a book published by Oxford University Press entitled Time for Listening and Caring: Spirituality and the Care of the Seriously Ill and Dying with a forward by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama.
Her many publications and presentations have urged the development of a patient-centered perspective in healthcare, with specialization in the importance of integrating spirituality and compassion into one's professional practice. Her work has been featured on numerous print and television media including Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Washington Times.
Dr. Puchalski, first and foremost is a clinician. She is also a member of a contemplative lay order, The Discalced Carmelites. Part of her clinical practice in internal medicine and geriatrics is integrating patients' spiritual beliefs into their health care. With her expertise, she can knowledgeably address the sensitive medical issues surrounding palliative and end-of-life care and care of seriously ill patients. Dr. Puchalski's work in the field of spirituality and medicine encompasses the clinical, the academic, and the pastoral application of her research and insights.
