PROFESSIONAL CHAPLAINCY

Open publication - Free publishing - More hospital Being There The Art of Clinical Pastoral Care By Jon Parham Staff Chaplain Susan McDougal says she wants patients to know that she cares and she will be there as long as they need her. A Code Blue alert for a patient in cardiac distress at UAMS Medical Center quickly brings medical help – and a chaplain. While health professionals tend to the patient’s medical needs, the chaplain offers pastoral support for family members, friends, other patients or employees. In this sometimes emotional situation, a UAMS chaplain may serve as a liaison for the patient and family with physicians, nurses and other caregivers. Perhaps more importantly, they are simply there. “I want to let them know – whether it’s a patient or a family member – that I care and that I am there for them,” said Susan McDougal, UAMS Medical Center staff chaplain. “I will stay with them as long as they need me.” This personal connectio...

At this Thanksgiving season we in CPSP have much to be thankful for. We are prospering as a community both in this country and overseas. We have come into our own as a significant community among the many communities that promote clinical pastoral work. We are also approaching November 30, the first anniversary of the Mediation Agreement signed by the ACPE and CPSP, signed appropriately enough in Philadelphia. This agreement put an end to two decades of animosity that was subverting the high goals of both communities. We are grateful especially to leaders of the Religious Endorsing Bodies without whom this agreement might ever have come to fruition. We are grateful, and we look forward to a deepening sense of collegiality between the two communities. The members of the CPSP Mediation Team who, with our ACPE colleagues brought this agreement to pass, are Jim Gebhart, Perry Miller, George Hankins-Hull, and me. In February a subcommittee was appointed to undertake the detailed ...