What Do Chaplains Really Do? I. Visitation in the New York Chaplaincy Study

Surveying patients' satisfaction with chaplaincy services contributes to improving the quality of health care chaplaincy. Therefore, 679 patients from 32 general hospitals and psychiatric clinics in the German part of Switzerland were surveyed in a cross-sectional design. Seven factors influencing patients' satisfaction with health care chaplaincy were identified. They pertain, on one hand, to the chaplain-patient relationship ("Respect and friendliness," "Empathy," "Negative relationship") and, on the other hand, to the evaluation of chaplains' interventions ("Religious/spiritual interventions," "Religious/spiritual issues," "Clarification, coping and support," "Conflict management and forgiveness"). Whereas the patient-chaplain relationship was significantly associated with the patient's age and religiosity, the apprehension of pastoral intervention was significantly associated with the patient's religiosity and denomination, length of stay, admission to hospital, and the patient's health status. The results suggest that chaplains have to take account of the situational circumstances and personal characteristics of patients in order to optimize their service.

Section: Factors Influencing the Evaluation Of Discussing Religious=scontrasting

confidence: 83%

Patients' Satisfaction with Health Care Chaplaincy and Affecting Factors: An Exploratory Study in the German Part of Switzerland

Winter-Pfändler¹,

Morgenthaler

2011

“…A series of papers by HealthCare Chaplaincy's researchers reported on the visits and interventions of 40 chaplains and more than 200 students taking clinical pastoral education (CPE) at 13 health care institutions in New York City and vicinity (Flannelly, Weaver, & Handzo, 2003;Handzo, 2008aHandzo, , 2008b. Spiritual assessments were made during 48% of initial visits and 44% of subsequent visits Handzo et al (2008a).…”

Section: Chaplains' Activities: Care Of Patientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common general interventions were empathic listening, life review, and emotional help to express feelings. Chaplains had longer visits with acute care patients than with non-acute care patients, and spent more time with patients when their families were present (Handzo et al, 2008b).…”

Section: Chaplains' Activities: Care Of Patientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the Efficacy of Chaplaincy Care

Jankowski¹,

Handzo²,

Flannelly³

2011

Self Cite

The current article reviews the research conducted in the United States on the clinical practice of chaplains with patients and family members, referrals to chaplains, patient satisfaction with chaplaincy services, and the limited literature on the efficacy of chaplain interventions. It also discusses the methodological limitations of studies conducted on these topics and makes suggestions for improving future chaplaincy research. The authors conclude that past studies have not adequately defined chaplain interventions, nor sufficiently documented the clinical practice of chaplains, and that more and better designed studies are needed to test the efficacy of chaplaincy interventions. The authors recommend that chaplains generate research-based definitions of spirituality, spiritual care, and chaplaincy practice; and that more research be conducted to describe the unique contributions of chaplains to spiritual care, identify best chaplaincy practices to optimize patient and family health outcomes, and test the efficacy of chaplaincy care.

“…The role of the health care chaplain is to serve as a member of the Health Care Team, to provide input and guidance to staff as to the spiritual well-being of patients, and to provide spiritual care to patients and families (Ruff, 1996;Handzo, Flannelly, Murphy, et al, 2008;Handzo, Flannelly, Hasan, et al, 2008;Vanderwerker et al, 2008). The Joint Commission requires the provision of Spiritual Care, and that all members of the Health Care Team make notes in the medical record.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chaplains and Access to Medical Records

Goldstein

Marin

Umpierre

2011

This study was initiated by a Pastoral Care Department of a large academic medical center in order to establish hospital chaplaincy policies and procedures. Four basic questions were asked about professional hospital chaplains and record keeping. The results of the survey show that the standard of practice is that chaplains access the medical record, enter notes in the record, have access to the electronic medical record, and that no special credentialing beyond Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is required for chaplains to have this access.