Professional Chaplaincy

Choose innovative strategies for ministering to patients, families, and staff in a time of change! In the scramble to cut health care costs and the need to make every penny count, the hospital chaplaincy program is at serious risk for being trimmed or eliminated. Professional Chaplaincy: What Is Happening to It During Health Care Reform? offers a clear look at the current situation and positive suggestions for showing administrators just how essential chaplaincy is.This essential volume includes original research showing the specific consequences of the new emphasis on economic rationalism, as well as moving firsthand accounts of the effects of downsizing and budget cuts. An Australian case study catalogs and analyzes the outcomes of a drive for cost efficiency in a hospital chaplain department. A thorough literature review provides opportunities for chaplains and administrators to investigate the value of pastoral care in hospital settings.Professional Chaplaincy includes practical suggestions for ways to respond to budget cuts, such as: - redefining the scope of your ministry - strengthening community ties - ministering to staff worried about heath care reform efforts - offering new programs to enrich spiritual life - documenting pastoral care visits - researching the value of chaplaincy to the well-being of patients and families Professional Chaplaincy offers positive ways that hospital chaplains can take action in response to the new health care paradigm. This informative book will assist you in developing future plans for maintaining and improving your hospital ministry.

Larry VandeCreek, DMin, BCC, is Director of Pastoral Research at The Healthcare Chaplaincy in New York City. For the past 23 years, he held faculty and staff positions with The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health and its associated medical center. Dr. VandeCreek is a member of numerous professional associations including the American Association of Marriage and Family Counselors, the Association of Professional Chaplains, Inc., the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, and the Association for Clinical and Pastoral Education. He has published many journal articles which examine aspects of the relationship between religious faith and illness. Dr. VandeCreek is the author of A Research Primer for Pastoral Care and Counseling (Journal of Pastoral Care Publications, 1988) and is Co-Editor of The Chaplain-Physician Relationship (1991). He is Editor of the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy (The Haworth Press, Inc.) which has published Ministry of Hospital Chaplains: Patient Satisfaction (1997), Scientific and Pastoral Perspectives on Intercessory Prayer: An Exchange Between Larry Dossey, M.D. and Health Care Chaplains (1998), Spiritual Care for Persons with Dementia: Fundamentals for Pastoral Practice (1999), and Contract Pastoral Care and Education: The Trend of the Future? (1999).

Contents o Preface o Contributions o My Experience with Health Care Reform o How Has Health Care Reform Affected Professional Chaplaincy Programs and How Are Department Directors Responding? o Health Care Reform: Analysis of Narrative Responses from Directors of Pastoral Care Departments o Economic Rationalism and the Cost Efficiency of Hospital Chaplaincy: An Australian Study o The Moon Has Four Phases and That's What Worries Me o Observations on Books, Journals, and Articles Relevant to Professional Chaplaincy and Health Care Reform o Current Contents in the Literature Concerning Health Care Reform of Importance to Professional Chaplains o Index o Reference Notes Included