What does a hospital chaplain do?

Are you thinking of becoming a hospital chaplain but unsure of what they actually do? This article will help you understand what a hospital chaplain does. The duties and responsibilities certainly vary from spiritual care department to department within healthcare systems, but this article will cover many common responsibilities, including patient visitation, staff care, and ethics.

Patient Visitation

The main task of a chaplain in the hospital is to provide spiritual care to patients. How a chaplain goes about visiting patients can vary greatly depending on the size, type, and staffing of the hospital. Some hospitals that employ only a few chaplains might only expect chaplains to respond to referrals or consults, which means other members of the healthcare team let the chaplain know which patients request or need a spiritual care visit.

Other hospitals might employ several chaplains and expect chaplains to make regular rounds through all the patient floors and conduct initial visits or assessments with most patients upon admission. Some hospitals place chaplains in specialty areas by hospital unit or area, such as having a chaplain dedicated to the emergency department or the oncology floor. There are many specialty areas chaplains can be assigned to besides those mentioned above, including pediatrics, cardiology, mental health, intensive care, palliative care, and hospice to name a few.

There are many reasons a member of the healthcare team might call a chaplain. A chaplain is often called for the death of a patient or after a difficult diagnosis is given by the doctor. Other times a staff member might call because the patient has mentioned how important prayer or religion is to them.

For more information on patient visitation see our article “What to say to someone in the hospital.”

For more information on providing spiritual care to someone who is dying see our article “What to say to someone who is dying.”

Member of the Interdisciplinary Team

Hospital chaplains are members of the healthcare team and part of their job is communicating with this team. This is done sometimes through meetings where each discipline gives a brief overview of their evaluation of the patient to the other members of the team.

A more common way this information is communicated is through the electronic medical record (EMR). This is where all of the information about the care of the patient is collected by all members of the healthcare team. Chaplains then write progress notes about their visits with the patient and what their plan of care is. This often includes the use of a spiritual assessment tool that describes the spiritual needs seen in the patient and what interventions the chaplain used to address these needs.

Staff Care

In addition to visiting patients, chaplains also provide spiritual care and support to their fellow employees. After difficult or emotional patients leave the hospital or pass away, chaplains can provide care to the staff by helping them process their emotions and what they experienced. Sometimes this is done one on one with staff members and other times it is done in a more formal, group debrief session.

Chaplains can also provide care to staff through counseling, including helping them with marriage problems or a loss in the family. Prayer is also an important tool in providing staff care. Many staff members appreciate prayer on a difficult day or just knowing that there is a chaplain lifting them up in prayer while they work.

Devotionals/Worship Services/Prayer

Chaplains are also responsible for worship services, devotionals, and prayer. These can vary greatly depending on the organization the chaplain works for. Faith-based healthcare organizations will probably put an emphasis on worship services and might have public prayers over the hospital intercom. Even government hospital systems, such as the Veterans Administration, have worship services for different religions based so their patients have the ability to express their faith.

Chaplains might also be called upon to give devotionals or motivational talks during meetings or for staff. Prayer, for meetings or events, is another way chaplains are used within the hospital.

Ethics

There can be difficult decisions related to the care of patients in the hospital and chaplains often play a role in making sure these decisions are ethical. Chaplains are often called on to talk with patients and families about the healthcare decisions they are making, including whether to sign a “Do Not Resuscitate” order or whether to go on hospice care.

Healthcare organizations also have ethics committees and many spiritual care departments will have a representative on this committee. The committee reviews the decision-making policies of the organization and examines specific cases to understand how better decisions and care can happen. The committee can also meet in order to help in specific cases and help bring difficult decisions to a conclusion.

Benevolence

In the midst of a health crisis people often have physical needs and many hospitals rely on chaplains to help meet these needs through a benevolence program. Depending on the healthcare system and how the chaplains work with their social worker colleagues, the chaplains can be involved in meeting needs related to food, prescriptions, or transportation.

Conclusion

Hospital chaplains can have many different roles depending on the organization they are a part of, but hopefully, this article provided you with useful information about some of the responsibilities they have. No matter the organization, the main role of a hospital chaplain is to provide spiritual care to patients, their families, and staff members.

For more information on hospital chaplaincy, see our article on how to become a hospital chaplain.