Abstract
Spiritual care is associated with improved health outcomes and higher patient satisfaction. However, chaplains often cover many hospital units and thus may not be able to serve all patients. Involving student chaplains in patient spiritual care may allow for more patients to experience the support of spiritual care. In this study, we surveyed 93 patients hospitalized on general medical units at a tertiary care center who were visited by nine student chaplain summer interns. The results indicated that the majority of patients appreciated student chaplain visits and these encounters may have positively influenced their overall hospital experience. Thus, student chaplains could be a way to extend valuable spiritual care in settings where chaplaincy staff shortages preclude access.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balboni, T. A., Balboni, M., Enzinger, A. C., Gallivan, K., Paulk, M. E., Wright, A., et al. (2013). Provision of spiritual support to patients with advanced cancer by religious communities and associations with medical care at the end of life. JAMA Internal Medicine, 173(12), 1109–1117. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.903.
Cadge, W., Calle, K., & Dillinger, J. (2011). What do chaplains contribute to large academic hospitals? The perspectives of pediatric physicians and chaplains. Journal of Religion and Health, 50(2), 300–312. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9474-8.
Carey, L. B. (2012). Utility and commissioning of spiritual carers. In M. Cobb, C. M. Puchalski, & B. Rumbold (Eds.), Oxford textbook of spirituality in healthcare. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Carey, L. B., & Cohen, J. (2009). Chaplain–physician consultancy: When chaplains and doctors meet in the clinical context. Journal of Religion and Health, 48(3), 353–367. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-008-9206-x.
Clark, P. A., Drain, M., & Malone, M. P. (2003). Addressing patients’ emotional and spiritual needs. Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 29(12), 659–670.
Cramer, E. M., & Tenzek, K. E. (2012). The chaplain profession from the employer perspective: An analysis of hospice chaplain job advertisements. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 18(3–4), 133–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2012.720548.
Fitchett, G., Lyndes, K. A., Cadge, W., Berlinger, N., Flanagan, E., & Misasi, J. (2011). The role of professional chaplains on pediatric palliative care teams: Perspectives from physicians and chaplains. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 14(6), 704–707. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2010.0523.
Flannelly, K. J., Handzo, G. F., & Weaver, A. J. (2004). Factors affecting healthcare chaplaincy and the provision of pastoral care in the United States. The Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling, 58(1–2), 127–130.
Jankowski, K. R., Vanderwerker, L. C., Murphy, K. M., Montonye, M., & Ross, A. M. (2008). Change in pastoral skills, emotional intelligence, self-reflection, and social desirability across a unit of CPE. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 15(2), 132–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/08854720903163304.
Jones, L. C. (2006). Baptism by fire in clinical pastoral education: The theory and practice of learning the art of pastoral care through verbatims. Reflective Practice, 7(1), 125–142.
Marin, D. B., Sharma, V., Sosunov, E., Egorova, N., Goldstein, R., & Handzo, G. F. (2015). Relationship between chaplain visits and patient satisfaction. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 21(1), 14–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2014.981417.
Pearce, M. J., Coan, A. D., Herndon, J. E., 2nd, Koenig, H. G., & Abernethy, A. P. (2012). Unmet spiritual care needs impact emotional and spiritual well-being in advanced cancer patients. Supportive Care in Cancer, 20(10), 2269–2276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1335-1.
Puchalski, C. M., Lunsford, B., Harris, M. H., & Miller, R. T. (2006). Interdisciplinary spiritual care for seriously ill and dying patients: A collaborative model. The Cancer Journal, 12(5), 398–416.
Wall, R. J., Engelberg, R. A., Gries, C. J., Glavan, B., & Curtis, J. R. (2007). Spiritual care of families in the intensive care unit. Critical Care Medicine, 35(4), 1084–1090. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CCM.0000259382.36414.06.
Williams, J. A., Meltzer, D., Arora, V., Chung, G., & Curlin, F. A. (2011). Attention to inpatients’ religious and spiritual concerns: Predictors and association with patient satisfaction. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 26(11), 1265–1271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-011-1781-y.
Winter-Pfandler, U., & Morgenthaler, C. (2011). Patients’ satisfaction with health care chaplaincy and affecting factors: An exploratory study in the German part of Switzerland. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 17(3–4), 146–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2011.559857.
Wintz, S. K., & Handzo, G. F. (2005). Pastoral care staffing and productivity: More than ratios. Chaplaincy Today, 21(1), 3–10.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Dr. Wright is a Miller-Coulson Family Scholar and is supported through the Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine.
Ethical Approval
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 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Purvis, T.E., Crowe, T.Y., Wright, S.M. et al. Patient Appreciation of Student Chaplain Visits During Their Hospitalization. J Relig Health 57, 240–248 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0530-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0530-x