Research Article Integration of Spirituality in Medical Education in Iran: A Qualitative Exploration of Requirements Nadereh Memaryan, 1 Maryam Rassouli, 2 Seyedeh Zahra Nahardani, 3 and Parisa Amiri 4 1 Academy of Medical Sciences of Islamic Republic of Iran, School of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 Pediatric Nursing Department, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Vali-e Asr Street, Cross Niyayesh Highway, Tehran 1985717443, Iran 3 Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 4 Research Center for Social Determinants of Endocrine Health & Obesity Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Correspondence should be addressed to Maryam Rassouli; rassouli.m@gmail.com Received 13 September 2015; Revised 3 November 2015; Accepted 8 November 2015 Academic Editor: Waris Qidwai Copyright © 2015 Nadereh Memaryan et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Healthcare system has needed to provide spiritual services, and one of the reasons for not addressing spirituality in this feld is lack of training in this area. Tis study purpose is to explore and identify main requirements for designing this education, in Iran. Materials and Methods. Tis is a qualitative study with conventional content analysis method. 18 participants, who were main stakeholders in spirituality, medical education, and curriculum development, were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected using semistructured interviews, which continued until data saturation. Results. Tree main themes and their categories were extracted from analysis of data. Te themes are (1) educational needs including clinical practice needs; (2) opportunities including rich background and backup, perceived clinical need, and right context of medical education for change; and (3) challenges including challenges in academic planning and barriers to implementation. Conclusion. All stakeholders acknowledged the need for addressing spirituality in formal medical education. It seems that implementation of such programs requires attention to facilitating factors and challenges proposed by those involved. 1. Introduction For many years, healthcare system has needed to provide spiritual answers and attend to this aspect of patients’ health [1]. Tis is confrmed by studies that reveal patient needs in this area [2–5]. Spirituality has been addressed in Iranian traditional medicine in that great Persian physicians, like al-Razi and Avicenna, considered it an efective factor in health, and Iranian traditional medicine utilized this concept for years [6]. Also in recent years Iran is among countries active in the relevant science production and is sixth in terms of publications regarding health and spirituality [7]. However, there is no evidence showing that these studies have resulted in treatment and care programs in the health care system. In contrast, there are studies indicating the barriers to providing these services [8]. One of the reasons for not addressing spirituality in the feld of health services is lack of training in this area [9]. Tus, providing such training appears essential [10]. Accordingly, inclusion and integration of spirituality in existing curricula has long been emphasized as a serious requirement [11] and has been seen in medical education documentations [12]. Despite the importance of this issue and the existence of relevant values in the strategic plans in Iran, it is still ignored in practice, so that no trace of spirituality-related education is currently observed in medical education in Iran [13]. In the US, the number of medical schools addressing such training increased from 3 in 1993 to 100 by 2011 [14]. Te Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2015, Article ID 793085, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/793085