Staff perceptions on the role and value of chaplains in first responder and military settings: A scoping review

Abstract

Background
 Chaplains in first responder and military services support staff prior to, during and after critical incidents. Some studies have explored the role of chaplains in these settings predominantly in the military and from chaplains’ perspectives. However, few studies have explored the perspective of staff. This scoping review aims to map the literature on staff perceptions of the role and value of chaplains in first responder and military settings.
 
 Method
 A scoping review using the Arksey & O’Malley (2003) and Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Methodology was conducted. English language peer-reviewed and grey literature in CINAHL, PubMed, PsychINFO, ProQuest and Google Scholar from 2004-2019 was reviewed for inclusion. Records were included if they provided staff perspectives on the role and value of chaplains in first responder and military settings. The initial search identified 491 records after removal of duplicates. All titles and abstracts were then screened for relevance to the research question and 84 were selected for full-text review. Seven records were included in final review; five dissertations and two peer-reviewed articles. Five of these were from the military and two from the police. Data were extracted and thematically analysed to identify staff perceptions of the role, skills and attributes, and value of chaplains in first responder and military settings.
 
 Results 
 Staff understood the role of chaplain to include the provision of spiritual and pastoral care and guidance and, in the case of police, providing scene support. Staff from all of the services identified requisite skills and attributes for chaplains such as being available, approachable and engaged; counselling; maintaining confidentiality and trust; being organisationally aware; and possessing distinct personality traits and knowledge of specialty content areas. The value chaplains brought to their services emerged from chaplains being trusted as a result of being proactively available for staff, families and bystanders for formal and informal conversation; organisational belonging and awareness resulting in enhanced staff satisfaction and retention; and promoting staff physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing.
 
 Conclusions
 Although military and police staff identified spiritual, psychological and social benefits to chaplains maintaining an active and visible role in their services, the small number of papers identified make generalisation of these findings to other first responder services problematic. Further research is therefore required to understand the impact of the chaplain’s role as part of the care team in first responder services.

Spirituality in the line of duty: Perspectives from first responders with acute posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder.

“…First responders’ difficulty bringing their spiritual/religious experience/identity into their occupation is likely tied to the profession’s culture of grit and gallows humor (Bowers et al, 2022; Jones et al, 2020; Lanza et al, 2018). However, other themes identified highlight the importance of spirituality/religion among first responder psychiatric patients, and reviews of the literature also recognize the positive aspects of integrating chaplains in first responder settings (Tunks Leach et al, 2020). Future research is needed to explore how and if first responders can appropriately and effectively integrate their spiritual/religious experiences and/or identities in their occupation.…”

Towards a Holistic Model of Care for Moral Injury: An Australian and New Zealand Investigation into the Role of Police Chaplains in Supporting Police Members following exposure to Moral Transgression

“…First, within a policing context, chaplains fulfil the role of offering informal care to staff and other members of the public who are both religious or non-religious, through various methods such as respectful listening, pastoral counselling, or, when appropriate, prayer (Layson et al, 2023). Moreover, police chaplains have the opportunity to support staff at all times, including before during and after critical incidents (Tunks Leach et al, 2020). Research showing that harm to one's religious beliefs and spirituality may lead to poorer mental health outcomes among those exposed to PMIEs (Hall et al, 2022;Evans et al, 2018) supports the potential importance of chaplainled pastoral models of care to address the spiritual impacts of moral transgressions (Carey et al, 2016;Koenig & Al Zaben, 2021).…”