• Curriculum for a Spiritual Pathway Project: integrating research methodology into pastoral care training

    Type Journal Article
    Author Paul Derrickson
    Author Angelina Van Hise
    Abstract In the immediate future Chaplains will need to practice evidence based spiritual care. To do this, they will need to be well versed in the research literature on spirituality and health, be able to critique it and incorporate it into their spiritual care, document their intervention, and measure its impact. To help train Chaplains for this reality, the Penn State Hershey Medical Center's Clinical Pastoral Education Residency program started the Spiritual Pathway Project in 2002. This paper describes the Spiritual Pathway Project, its evolution and contribution to the education of the next generation of Chaplains.
    Publication Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy
    Volume 16
    Issue 1-2
    Pages 3-12
    Date 2009
    Journal Abbr J Health Care Chaplain
    DOI 10.1080/08854720903451030
    ISSN 1528-6916
    Short Title Curriculum for a Spiritual Pathway Project
    Accessed Tue Feb 22 18:30:31 2011
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 20183109
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:07:00 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:07:00 2011

    Tags:

    • Chaplaincy Service, Hospital
    • Curriculum
    • Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
    • Pastoral Care
    • Pennsylvania
    • Program Evaluation
    • Research

    Notes:

    • This article outlines the curriculum developed at Penn State Hershey Medical Center's Clinical Pastoral Education Residency program for training future hospital chaplains to practice evidence based spiritual care, to complement the evidence based approaches carried out by the rest of the medical profession.

  • Listening as a Symbol of Religion: A Chaplain's Response

    Type Journal Article
    Author James W. Ellor
    Abstract Chaplains offer a different perspective for this discussion as they are at once religious professionals, but often working in secular settings. As religious professionals they are seen as persons who represent a particular religion and yet must be available to persons of all faiths. In this context, chaplains do understand and define religion because in the course of their work they also understand that some people do not believe in religion. A chaplain's ministry is to both believer and nonbeliever. Chaplains may have greater difficulty incorporating spirituality into their work if they are from a religious tradition that does not generally include this concept in their work. Chaplains are practitioners who work directly with the dual role of religious professional working with the tools of religion and yet often operating in secular settings.
    Publication Journal of Religion, Spirituality & Aging
    Volume 21
    Issue 4
    Pages 310-315
    Date 2009 October
    DOI 10.1080/15528030903191649
    ISSN 1552-8030
    Short Title Listening as a Symbol of Religion
    URL http://www.informaworld.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/10.1080/15528030903191649
    Accessed Mon Nov 2 20:32:12 2009
    Library Catalog Informaworld
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:05:21 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:05:21 2011

    Notes:

    • This article is a response to an article by Alice Glickman critiquing contemporary approaches to the study of religion and spirituality among the elderly.  This article makes the point that from the perspectives of chaplains, who are religious professionals called to work in a secular setting, the crossing of boundaries between religious and secular is more natural than for those who approaching the problem from other perspectives.

  • Complementary alternative medicine practices used by religious professionals

    Type Journal Article
    Author Katherine R. B. Jankowski
    Author Nava R. Silton
    Author Kathleen Galek
    Author Martin G. Montonye
    Abstract Religious professionals completed an online survey of their use of health related practices currently known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). They indicated how often they engaged in these practices and how often they had used these practices when helping other people. The majority of religious professionals used at least one of the practices when alone and when helping other people. The most frequently used practices were meditation and deep breathing exercises used both when alone and when helping others. Female respondents were more likely to use these practices on their own and when helping others than were males, and older respondents were more likely to use multiple CAM practices than their younger counterparts. Other Faith/Humanists used the most CAM practices when alone and Jewish respondents used the fewest. In general, religious professionals used fewer practices when helping others than they used for themselves. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future studies for examining CAM practices among religious professionals are discussed.
    Publication Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy
    Volume 16
    Issue 3
    Pages 172-182
    Date Jul 2010
    Journal Abbr J Health Care Chaplain
    DOI 10.1080/08854726.2010.498694
    ISSN 1528-6916
    Accessed Tue Jul 27 12:22:17 2010
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 20658430
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011

    Notes:

    • This study looks into the employment of complementary and alternative medicine by religious professionals, both alone and when working with patients, and finds that the majority of religious professionals do use CAM practices, particularly meditation and deep breathing.  There is more employment of the practices by women than men, and older professionals are more likely to use combinations of CAM practices than younger professionals.  There is also a tendency for religious professionals to employ CAM practices for themselves more than for helping others.

  • Hope beyond (redundant) hope: how chaplains work with dying patients

    Type Journal Article
    Author Steve Nolan
    Abstract Using Grounded Theory, this study examines the experience of 19 palliative care chaplains in counselling dying people. Taking a broad-based definition of counselling, and using unstructured individual interviews and group work, the study aimed to understand how palliative care chaplains work with patients at the point when it has been decided to cease active treatment, the point where they risk losing hope and falling into despair. Analysing the data using code-based theory building software, the author identified four organic moments in the chaplain-patient relationship, each moment being a discernable development in the chaplain's being-with the patient: 'evocative presence'; 'accompanying presence'; 'comforting presence'; and 'hopeful presence'. The author represents the four moments as a theory of 'chaplain as hopeful presence', and offers a description of the way in which the quality of presence can facilitate patients to develop 'a hopeful manner' in which hope is reconfigured into an attribute of being. The author concludes (with Levinas) that chaplains and other palliative care staff should be aware that simply being-with an other can, in itself, be hope fostering.
    Publication Palliative Medicine
    Volume 25
    Issue 1
    Pages 21-25
    Date Jan 2011
    Journal Abbr Palliat Med
    DOI 10.1177/0269216310380297
    ISSN 1477-030X
    Short Title Hope beyond (redundant) hope
    Accessed Sun Feb 13 10:32:52 2011
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 21245080
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 08:57:52 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 08:57:52 2011

    Notes:

    • This article analyzes the role of chaplains with dying patients who have decided to cease seeking a medical cure for their ailment.  It identifies four moments in the work chaplains do with such patients: evocative presence, accompanying presence, comforting presence, and hopeful presence.  The article confirms the role of presence in chaplaincy as primary.

  • The contemplative counselor : a way of being

    Type Book
    Author Rolf Nolasco
    Place Minneapolis
    Publisher Fortress Press
    Date 2011
    ISBN 9780800696627
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 08:58:46 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 08:58:46 2011

    Notes:

    • This book bridges the worlds of counseling, contemplation, and action.  It seeks to identify a pastoral mode arising from contemplative practice that is both effective in counseling settings and provides an avenue into social action.  Less a study of counseling than a methodology for counseling.

  • The use of dreams in spiritual care

    Type Journal Article
    Author Susan Stranahan
    Abstract This paper explores the use of dreams in the context of pastoral care. Although many people dream and consider their dreams to hold some significant spiritual meaning, spiritual care providers have been reluctant to incorporate patients' dreams into the therapeutic conversation. Not every dream can be considered insightful, but probing the meaning of some dreams can enhance spiritual care practice. Hill's Cognitive-Experimental Dream Interpretation Model is applied in the current article as a useful framework for exploring dreams, gaining insight about spiritual problems, and developing a therapeutic plan of action. Bulkeley's criteria for dream interpretation were used to furnish safeguards against inappropriate application of dream interpretation to spiritual assessment and interventions.
    Publication Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy
    Volume 17
    Issue 1
    Pages 87-94
    Date Jan 2011
    Journal Abbr J Health Care Chaplain
    DOI 10.1080/08854726.2011.559862
    ISSN 1528-6916
    URL http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21534069
    Accessed Wed Jun 8 18:54:59 2011
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 21534069
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 08:55:16 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 08:55:16 2011

    Notes:

    • This article encourages discussion of dreams as a part of therapeutic care of patients by pastoral care providers.  Specifically, it suggests that Hill's Cognitive-Experimental Dream Interpretation Model is useful for practitioners to explore dreams with patients, gaining insight about spiritual problems, and developing a course of action.

  • Are surveys on quality improvement of healthcare chaplaincy emotionally distressing for patients? A pilot study

    Type Journal Article
    Author Urs Winter-Pfändler
    Author Christoph Morgenthaler
    Abstract In recent years, much research work has been done in the field of religion/spirituality and healthcare. Many chaplains are wary of doing research because they assume it is cumbersome or potentially deleterious to ill patients. The aim of the present pilot study is, therefore, to find out if research on quality improvement of healthcare chaplaincy is emotionally distressing for patients. In connection with a questionnaire about quality improvement proceeding of healthcare chaplaincy, patients were asked subsequently to assess whether the completion of the questionnaire was emotionally distressing for them. A total of 91.89% of the 37 respondents said that the completion of the questionnaire was not or only slightly emotionally distressing for them. Furthermore, analyses for significant differences showed no effect, except for a significant association with the anxiety scale. Findings from this study suggest that participants found no objective reasons not to do research in healthcare chaplaincy.
    Publication Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy
    Volume 16
    Issue 3
    Pages 140-148
    Date Jul 2010
    Journal Abbr J Health Care Chaplain
    DOI 10.1080/08854726.2010.480829
    ISSN 1528-6916
    Short Title Are surveys on quality improvement of healthcare chaplaincy emotionally distressing for patients?
    Accessed Tue Jul 27 12:22:38 2010
    Library Catalog NCBI PubMed
    Extra PMID: 20658427
    Date Added Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011
    Modified Thu Sep 29 09:03:48 2011

    Notes:

    • This study aims to encourage research by healthcare chaplains into improving healthcare chaplaincy by demonstrating the fallacy of the common assumption that participating in such research with prove distressing to patients.