Tenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Chaplains provide spiritual care to aid people of all faiths faced with illness and loss while seeking comfort and meaning. The central questions guiding this study was what are the demands on chaplains at a large, secular, academic medical center located in Southeast Texas? This study also examined the time the chaplains spend meeting these demands and the barriers they experience as members of interdisciplinary team. It was conducted with a team of trained data collectors who gathered quantitative and qualitative data associated with 9 core processes, which included initial visits, pre-operative visits, follow-up visits, death visits, actively dying visits, withdrawal of life support visits, code visits, staff visits, and interdisciplinary rounds. The results revealed a number of notable findings, some of which were consistent with previously published studies, and some were unique discoveries. For example, despite concealing their feelings from the public, many of the chaplains expressed feeling devalued and under-appreciated by members of multidisciplinary team based on a perceived disregard for their spiritual contributions to the care of patients, their families and friends, and staff members. This study benefits healthcare chaplaincy in that it draws attention to issues that can impede quality of service and decrease operational efficiency.