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PDF versionShould Catholic chaplains be board-certified?
Feb. 20, 2010
(Pat Marrin)
Mission Management
Sick patients want to be treated by the best-trained doctors and nurses available. But is that enough or do patients need pastoral care as an integral part of holistic health care? While most hospitals offer spiritual care to their patients, do patients really need professionally trained and board-certified Catholic chaplains?
One organization thinks so.
“Chaplaincy work is a remarkable ministry, but requires knowledge of the setting,” said David Lichter, executive director of the Milwaukee-based National Association of Catholic Chaplains.
For 45 years the association has been dedicated to improving pastoral care in the health care setting.
“Chaplains are coworkers in the vineyard and need to be able to walk into any room and serve the heart and spirit of the patient and families they encounter,” said Lichter.
Today, the National Association of Catholic Chaplains recommends that hospital chaplains obtain board certification, and it is authorized by the U.S. bishops to certify Catholic chaplains, supervisors and clinical pastoral education supervisors.
“In health care, credentials mean everything,” said Brian Yanofchick, senior director for mission integration and leadership development for the Catholic Health Association. In situations “like intense grief counseling, oncology departments and emergency rooms, for example, training is absolutely critical,” Yanofchick said.
What training does a Catholic chaplain need in order to provide meaningful pastoral care in a hospital setting?
Certification by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains requires, among other things, an undergraduate degree and a graduate-level degree in theology, divinity, religious studies, pastoral ministry, pastoral studies, or spirituality.
In addition, a person must have four units of clinical pastoral education accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, the U.S. bishops’ Commission on Certification and Accreditation, or the Canadian Association for Pastoral Practice and Education.
Further, Catholic chaplains must adhere to the Common Code of Ethics for Chaplains, Pastoral Counselors, Pastoral Educators and Students. To maintain certification, chaplains must undertake 50 hours of continuing education each year.
Every five years the board certification needs to be renewed.
“Certification attests to both professional competence and official endorsement by the church,” Lichter said.
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“Catholic health care sees spiritual care as an integral and important dimension of our ministry,” said Laura Richter, director of workplace spirituality and director of mission integration at the St. Louis-based Ascension Health System, which has 72 hospitals in 20 states and over 200 full-time chaplains.
“Decades ago, nuns and priests received some training during their years of formation,” she explained. “We have transitioned to more laypeople serving as chaplains.”
Lichter agrees.
Membership in the National Association of Catholic Chaplains has changed to more laypeople than priests and religious. The association has over 2,700 members with 44 percent lay, 34 percent women religious, 17 percent priests and 5 percent deacons and religious brothers. About 75 percent of members are board-certified.
“While we do not mandate certification as a hiring requirement, we consider board certification to be the ‘gold standard’ for Catholic chaplains,” said Richter of Ascension Health System.
Board certification is burdensome and sometimes difficult to access, especially in rural areas. To address the needs of its staff, Ascension Health System has four clinical pastoral education centers.
At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the role of the 25 chaplains is important. There are about 15 Catholic chaplains, including six priests.
“Patient care is consultative and chaplains are accepted as part of the team serving the patient,” said Fr. Dean Marek, a Milwaukee archdiocesan priest who serves as a chaplain at the Mayo Clinic, and previously served as its director of chaplain services.
One of the challenges for holistic health care is that the medical staff at some hospitals is not aware of the contribution of chaplains.
In 1998, Marek and others began to accumulate data on pastoral ministry in order to become accountable to the institution. They developed a “cost per unit of service” metric to begin to demonstrate the value of the chaplaincy program, said Marek.
The hallmark of any profession is that it undertakes research about its effectiveness, said Marek.
The value-added proposition of chaplains required educating the medical staff and administration. “We no longer use the term ‘visiting patients,’ as chaplains simply don’t just ‘visit’ patients,” said Marek.
Another question to be answered is what do patients expect from chaplains?
“One of our goals is to measure outcomes in terms of what we provide patients,” said Marek. For example, how has a patient’s spiritual outlook changed, if at all, during her length of say?
“At a minimum, chaplains remind patients of God’s presence and care,” said Marek.
[Tom Gallagher writes for NCR’s regular Mission Management column. His e-mail address is tom@tomgallagheronline.com.]
Related Web site
National Association of Catholic Chaplains
www.nacc.org
The standards should also
The standards should also include knowledge of modern Catholic moral and medical ethics, which many of these chaplains sorely lack.
According to the Code of
According to the Code of Canon Law - Can. 564: "A chaplain is a priest to whom is entrusted in a stable manner the pastoral care, at least in part, of some community or special group of Christ's faithful, to be exercised in accordance with universal and particular law."
Canonically, someone who is a Catholic chaplain, properly so called, must be a priest. It seems to me that priestly ordination is the ultimate "credential" for ministry in the Catholic church. The fact is that only a priest may validly minister the sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick -- two sacraments crucial to Catholic hospital ministry. It is true that there is a great shortage of men so "credentialed." There is an ongoing discussion about that, but I see no point in rehashing it here; for the foreseeable future, the shortage is a given.
I'm not putting down the good work of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, but I am suggesting that there are two very different models of ministry here, and that this disconnect should be addressed: Is sacramental ministry primary or ancillary to the ministry of counseling? Shortage of priests or not, we are a hierarchical and sacramental church, and we need clergy for sacraments.
Great article. Chaplains not
Great article. Chaplains not only serve patients, but also families and staff. Reducing expensive staff turnover in high-stress settings like intensive care units is an effect of professional chaplaincy which greatly improves quality of care and the cost to institutions. Supporting families of patients through serious hospital encounters is not only important for their health, but also has measurable impact on patient satisfaction. Such metrics are the language hospital administrators understand. Thanks for this coverage!
“One of our goals is to
“One of our goals is to measure outcomes in terms of what we provide patients,” said Marek. For example, how has a patient’s spiritual outlook changed, if at all, during her length of say?
Off the topic, but: How do we measure our effectiveness generally, in a parish/diocese? Not just a hospital.
Having consistent standards
Having consistent standards is a good thing but they could also be abused by micromanaging from above. At first glance we all want hospital ministry to be open, caring with spirituality from the hart to get through this tough time. Given Rome's willingness to intercede in other affairs from above recently I hope that they would not come in through the USCCB to micromanage through needless orthodoxy in the standards for a hospital setting. Any standards should relate to the modern hospital experience and normal grief ministry.
Absolutely! Anyone who
Absolutely! Anyone who ministers to the sick and dying must be board-certified in the wood of the Cross. It takes sanctity, not a degree in theology, divinity, religious studies, pastoral ministry, pastoral studies, or spirituality to be relevant to the sick and dying.
The concept of having
The concept of having chaplains board-certified is excellent. It is important that they have a broad training to equip them to deal with patients'
spiritual, physical, mental, and social needs when they are admitted to a hospital.
However, there are some major roadblocks to processing the certification of chaplains. First, there are not enough priests to go around in many Dioceses. A priest who is a chaplain, should be free to exercise his ministry to those in the hospital. This is a full time ministry---but in many places priests from the local parishes are "on-call" as hospital chaplains---and this becomes a part-time ministry.
Often times---these priests are the pastors (and the only priest) at the local parish. They are often on-call all day (and night). When patients come in (either as emergency or for a planned surgery/therepy), they need to receive the sacraments, spiritual counseling/guidance. Often, the families coming in to see the patient---are also in need of spiritual counseling/guidance. Religious and lay men and women can certainly provide counseling/guidance to the patient or the families, as well as distribute Holy Communion. But as it is in the Church today----only a priest can administer the Anointing of the Sick or hear confessions. As it is, in many places, the time of the priest chaplains/pastors of parishes are stretched to the limit. And this situation is not going to be getting better any time soon.
Board certification is all
Board certification is all well and good if you are able to jump through all the hoops required for certification. In my own experience I have found that CPE programs have not been flexible and not adapted to the needs of those who cannot quit working their full time jobs in order to get certified. I have been working as a non certified chaplain for 10 years. Unfortunately the CPE program offered in my area only meets during the daytime 5 days a week and is a two year program. Also, the stipend offered would not even come close to covering the costs for living to meet my mortgage payment, car payment and all the other costs of daily living. My goal is to become a manager or director of a pastoral care department for a community hospital. But that goal seems very distant with the limited options for getting certified.
The College of Pastoral
The College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy is a training and accrediting body that is sensitive to the challenge of providing quality clinical training in the context of busy people who cannot abandon all to pursue such training. You might check CPSP.org to find a CPE center near you and a supervisor who would work with you to accommodate your schedule.