I lead the Spiritual Care department at a large, Level 1 Trauma Center as well as run training programs for chaplain interns/residents and teach spirituality and religion in our medical school.
I could go on for paragraphs about the lack of resources and professionalism in the field of professional chaplaincy. I am sure the rural hospitals ran into a lack of funding, as that is true for so many places and not seeing spiritual support as a regulatory requirement - which it is - not just a "nice thing to have." It also gets into problems when we use volunteers (most of whom are untrained) to do a job. We would never expect nurses or social workers to volunteer their time.
Thank you for being an advocate for the importance of chaplaincy. There are more research studies being done about the impact of spiritual care on clinical outcomes, which I find encouraging and can point you in that direction if you'd like to learn more.
Thank you for this excellent post Dr. Leap. And thank you for your work Christine. As a former nurse as well as a patient I can attest to the importance of spiritual care practice.
We have a chaplaincy residency program at the hospital where I work in Berkeley, California. All faiths and the chaplains have "training" in all faiths, regardless of their beliefs. On call 24/7!
Thanks for writing this. I'm a hospital chaplain and write about my work in my substack publication - https://journeyingalongside.substack.com/
I lead the Spiritual Care department at a large, Level 1 Trauma Center as well as run training programs for chaplain interns/residents and teach spirituality and religion in our medical school.
I could go on for paragraphs about the lack of resources and professionalism in the field of professional chaplaincy. I am sure the rural hospitals ran into a lack of funding, as that is true for so many places and not seeing spiritual support as a regulatory requirement - which it is - not just a "nice thing to have." It also gets into problems when we use volunteers (most of whom are untrained) to do a job. We would never expect nurses or social workers to volunteer their time.
Thank you for being an advocate for the importance of chaplaincy. There are more research studies being done about the impact of spiritual care on clinical outcomes, which I find encouraging and can point you in that direction if you'd like to learn more.
Thank you for this excellent post Dr. Leap. And thank you for your work Christine. As a former nurse as well as a patient I can attest to the importance of spiritual care practice.
We have a chaplaincy residency program at the hospital where I work in Berkeley, California. All faiths and the chaplains have "training" in all faiths, regardless of their beliefs. On call 24/7!
Thank you for bringing this issue to light. In today’s world I believe a chaplain is needed more than ever.
What exactly is a locus or travel physician?
Lola Murray