Cultivating Shared Sacred Moments: Awe and Wonder in Clinical Care
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By
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Lenny López
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Horace Delisser
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October 7, 2026
Clinical Scorecard: Cultivating Shared Sacred Moments: Awe and Wonder in Clinical Care
At a Glance
| Category | Detail |
|---|---|
| Condition | Sacred moments are brief experiences involving transcendence, boundlessness, ultimacy, deep interconnectedness, and spiritual emotions. |
| Key Mechanisms | The framework identifies openness and religious/spiritual beliefs as predisposing factors; palliative care contexts and near-death experiences as precipitating factors; and lack of time and training as hindering factors. |
| Target Population | Clinicians and patients in clinical encounters; the source discusses variation across cultural and religious contexts. |
| Care Setting | Routine clinical practice, including palliative care, and medical education. |
Key Highlights
- Sacred moments are described as brief experiences involving transcendence, boundlessness, ultimacy, deep interconnectedness, and spiritual emotions.
- The term is used broadly to include religious and non-religious meanings; descriptions and interpretations may vary across cultures.
- Research cited in the article associates sacred moments with reduced stress, better mental health, greater purpose in life, and stronger clinician-patient relational and therapeutic alliance.
- Prevalence estimates reach 68% among general internal medicine physicians, and most sampled healthcare clinicians reported experiencing such a moment with a patient.
Guideline-Based Recommendations
Diagnosis
- The article presents a conceptual framework for understanding sacred moments; it does not provide diagnostic criteria.
Management
- The supplied source excerpt notes that relevant material is included in initial medical-student doctoring courses but is generally not revisited during subsequent clinical training.
Monitoring & Follow-up
- The article does not specify a clinical monitoring protocol.
Risks
- The framework identifies lack of time and training as factors that may hinder sacred moments.
- Some participants expressed negative attitudes toward religion and spirituality; the source says descriptions and interpretations of sacred moments vary across cultures.
Patient & Prescribing Data
Not applicable: the source discusses clinicians and patients in clinical encounters, not a prescribing population.
No medication or prescribing data are provided. The article reports research associations between sacred moments and reduced stress, better mental health, greater purpose, and stronger clinician-patient alliance; these are associations, not stated treatment effects.
Clinical Best Practices
Related Resources & Content
Based on findings from:
Attuning and Sharing Sacred Moments: Awe and Wonder in the Clinical Encounter
Lenny López, Horace Delisser. Journal Of General Internal Medicine, 2026.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-026-10883-9
This content is an AI-generated, fully rewritten summary based on a published scholarly article. It does not reproduce the original text and is not a substitute for the original publication. Readers are encouraged to consult the source for full context, data, and methodology.
