Chaplain

BACKGROUND: The concept of "total pain" plays an important role in palliative care; it means that pain is not solely experienced on a physical level, but also within a psychological, social and spiritual dimension. Understanding what spirituality entails, however, is a challenge for health care professionals, as is screening for the spiritual needs of patients. OBJECTIVE: This is a novel, interprofessional approach in teaching undergraduate medical students about spiritual care in the format of a seminar...

This feasibility study reports on the development and initial evaluation of a novel online intervention for helping professionals (HPs; i.e. mental health professionals, chaplains, clergy) designed to (a) address occupational hazards, such as burnout and vicarious traumatization, and (b) promote well-being and flourishing at work. In contrast with competency and self-care focused models, the CHRYSALIS (Catalyzing Helping Professionals' Resilience, VitalitY, Spirituality, Authentic Living, and Inner Strength) intervention centers the self of the provider, explores cultural and spiritual contexts, and attends to systemic challenges...

Healthcare chaplains address broad social and emotional dimensions of care within a pluralistic religious landscape. Although the development and evaluation of chaplaincy interventions has advanced the field, little research has investigated factors influencing the implementation of new chaplain interventions. In this mixed-method study, we examined attitudes about evidence-based interventions held by chaplain residents (n = 39) at the outset of an ACPE-accredited residency program in the southeast United States...

This issue of JORH explores a broad range of topics looking at the professions of nursing, clergy and chaplains. This issue also concludes the series on Parkinson's disease (Part 2), and for the first time, JORH presents a collation of articles relating to workplace religiosity. Finally, this issue revisits the topics of women's health and family issues in relation to religiosity and spirituality.

Ambulance staff wellbeing programs aim to support the bio-psycho-social and sometimes spiritual needs of paramedics. While evidence demonstrates strong connections between spirituality and/or religion to wellbeing outcomes, little is known about spiritual care in ambulance services or its impact. The aim of this study was to investigate paramedics' perspectives on the role and value of Australian ambulance chaplains. A cross-sectional online study of registered paramedics in Australia was conducted between November and December 2022...

University chaplains are often unrecognised as resources in suicide prevention. This exploratory article highlights the valuable contributions university chaplains at one Australian university make to suicide prevention. Three overarching themes related to the contributions of university chaplains to suicide prevention were generated: (1) person-centred care; (2) the role of university chaplains in suicide prevention; and (3) professional development. Of particular note is that university chaplains actively contribute to all three phases of the suicide prevention framework: prevention, intervention, and postvention...

OBJECTIVES: Healthcare chaplains are faith providers with theological education, pastoral experience, and clinical training who provide spiritual care to patients, their families, and medical staff. This study sought to characterize chaplains' experiences providing spiritual care for patients experiencing abortion and pregnancy loss, and to explore how chaplains gain competency and comfort in providing pastoral care for this patient population. STUDY DESIGN: Researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews with currently-practicing chaplains recruited via convenience sampling in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia region...

OBJECTIVE: Describe care surrounding the end of life (EOL) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review of 208 infants who died in a level IV referral-only NICU over 5 years. RESULTS: A goals of care (GOC) conversation was documented before the day of death for 63% of infants. 73% died following withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (WD); 13% died in a code. The median age at death was 17.5 days. 72% were held by a parent at EOL...

OBJECTIVE: To pilot test and assess the feasibility and acceptability of chaplain-led decision coaching alongside the GOALS (Getting Optimal Alignment around Life Support) decision support tool to enhance decision-making in threatened periviable delivery. METHODS: Pregnant people admitted for threatened periviable delivery and their 'important other' (IO) were enrolled. Decisional conflict, acceptability, and knowledge were measured before and after the intervention...

OBJECTIVES: To understand frontline ICU clinician's perceptions of end-of-life care delivery in the ICU. DESIGN: Qualitative observational cross-sectional study. SETTING: Seven ICUs across three hospitals in an integrated academic health system. SUBJECTS: ICU clinicians (physicians [critical care, palliative care], advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, chaplains). INTERVENTIONS: None...

Hospital chaplains routinely document the spiritual care they provide in patients' medical records, which is a useful and important practice. This article advocates two charting practices chaplains should change to better align our documentation with the beliefs and values of our profession.

BACKGROUND: Spirituality is an important component of social and cultural identity that influences health-related beliefs, decision-making, and coping behaviors. Despite the importance of addressing spirituality in healthcare, research about its impact is limited, especially in the primary care setting. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore patients' and chaplains' experiences of receiving or providing spiritual care in the primary care setting. METHODS: We conducted an in-depth interview qualitative research study...

Background: Hospitals often lack bereavement programs. Bereaved families often navigate grief support on their own. This problem was complicated by the early COVID-19 pandemic. Objective: Describe a cost neutral pilot to support next of kin (NOK) of deceased patients from our communicable disease response unit (CDRU) and palliative care unit (PCU). Design: Ad hoc pilot leveraging chaplains and a social worker (SW) to call NOK for grief support using a templated guide, referring interested NOK to bereavement support agencies...

BACKGROUND: There is widespread agreement about the importance of spiritual training programs (STPs) for healthcare professionals caring for cancer patients, and that reflecting on one's spirituality is the first step. Health professionals (HPs) working in hospitals must develop this dimension to guarantee the quality of life as well as spiritual and emotional support. In this paper, we propose a possible training format for hospital professionals and assess its implementation. METHODS: This is a phase 0-I study that follows the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Encounters of moral distress have long-term consequences on healthcare workers' physical and mental health, leading to job dissatisfaction, reduced patient care, and high levels of burnout, exhaustion, and intentions to quit. Yet, research on approaches to ameliorate moral distress across the health workforce is limited. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to qualitatively explore multi-professional perspectives of healthcare social workers, chaplains, and patient liaisons on ways to reduce moral distress and heighten well-being at a southern U...

This article, the result of an Action Research project, describes the process of creating and testing a resource for assessing the contribution of chaplaincy in a British university setting, and the resultant insights and outcomes: organisational and individual learning, changes in chaplains' attitudes to monitoring and evaluation, and a resource which is perceived as having benefits and limitations. This article considers the evaluation process as applied to chaplaincy and offers a model for further testing...

This article reports findings from an action research project in which a university chaplaincy team explored the desirability and viability of assessing their impact. It uncovers a complexity in chaplains' understandings about their role and - chief amongst their fears - belief that quantitative measures can be harmful to pastoral and spiritual work. It also reveals a sense of institutional accountability and a desire to engage with processes for determining and articulating chaplaincy's value.

AIMS: To investigate the level of adoption of evidence-based family engagement and support during end-of-life cancer care and subsequent bereavement and its contextual facilitators and barriers from health professionals' perspectives, and to explore differences between professional groups. DESIGN: Contextual analysis using an online cross-sectional survey. METHODS: This study was conducted in four Swiss hospitals and three home care oncology and palliative care services...

Frieze patterns follow a set of tiling instructions including reflection, rotation, and translation, and tile the infinite strip. Many metamaterials function due to the underlying symmetry, and its strategic breaking, of their constituent sub-structures that allow tailoring of the dispersion of modes supported by the structure. We design, simulate, and experimentally characterize seven one-dimensional acoustic metasurfaces whose unit cells each belong to one of the distinct Frieze groups.