Abstract
Many scholars have written about the role of spirituality in health care. One mechanism for incorporating spirituality into the care of patients is to integrate clinically trained chaplains into hospital care teams. We examined in a mixed-methods fashion, the effects of this type of integrated care team within a teaching hospital setting. The quality and impact of chaplain involvement were studied from patient and physician-in-training perspectives, using data from more than 200 patients and physicians in training. Findings clearly show that clinically trained chaplains can contribute meaningful expertise and real value to the quality and comprehensiveness of patient and physician experiences.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Chasie Wallis for her help with data collection and qualitative data coding. We also note with gratitude that portions of this work were made possible with a Grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation (#RS-14-003).
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CJLC, MP, JL, GD, and KD declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Cunningham, C.J.L., Panda, M., Lambert, J. et al. Perceptions of Chaplains’ Value and Impact Within Hospital Care Teams. J Relig Health 56, 1231–1247 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0418-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0418-9