HealthCare Chaplaincy: Finding Meaning - Bringing Comfort

You can play a vital role in helping more people find meaning and comfort as they cope with life-changing health situations.

Your financial support funds groundbreaking research, advances in professional education, and expert clinical practice in hospitals and elsewhere. Please donate here.


Two Leading Bioethicists Receive Pioneer Medal for Outstanding Leadership in Health Care

Honored with HealthCare Chaplaincy’s Pioneer Medal were Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., M.A.C.P., one of the founders of medical bioethics, former president of the Catholic University of America and former dean of the school of medicine at Stony Brook University, and Stephen G. Post, Ph.D., director for the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics, Stony Brook University.

Watch the video of their keynote addresses from our annual convocation on May 8, 2012 held at Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan.


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PlainViews-an e-newsletter for chaplains and other spiritual care providers

Subscribe today to PlainViews®, the online professional journal for chaplains and other spiritual care providers. It will enhance your professional practice with stimulating content and dialogue that arrives in your in-box twice a month. Subscribers say:

PlainViews is remarkable in our field.”

“I’ve been a long time subscriber and each issue is wonderful!"

PlainViews is very informative and a way to network and link to the variety of topics and issues raised in chaplaincy.”

Read special issues on Disaster Spiritual Response and the 10th anniversary of 9/11.


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Read "Bigger Roles for Chaplains on Patient Medical Teams" and "Informed Patient: Bringing Spirituality to Medicine."



What makes our Clinical Pastoral Education Program so exceptional?

  • Read what students, alumni, and faculty say.
  • Read about the semi-annual symposium for students.
  • Read "The Art and Discipline of Clinical Pastoral Education: What I Learned on Shadowing a Chaplain."

For health care professionalsFor administrators at hospitals, medical centers, rehabilitation/ nursing homes, and home health care facilities:

Discover here how our Board Certified Chaplains can help you meet your clinical and financial goals.

Resources to be a Best ChaplainIs your health care institution seeking Joint Commission Advanced Certification for Palliative Care?

Make sure your team includes a Board Certified Chaplain with palliative care specialty training. Learn
more.

HealthCare Chaplaincy 2011 Annual Report

Read Annual Report 2011. Read fact sheet.

HealthCare Chaplaincy is a thought leader for quality, accessible and affordable palliative care. says, "Palliative care is one of the fastest-growing fields in medicine." 

Learn why, find answers to common questions, and useful links.

Finding Meaning-Bringing ComfortFinding Meaning - Bringing Comfort

Our professional chaplains help hospital patients, loved ones, and staff who are dealing with life-changing health situations -- regardless of who they are or what they believe -- identify and draw upon their source of strength to find meaning and comfort.  Learn how they contribute as members of the health care team. Read powerful stories of healing.

Resources of comfort and meaningSources of comfort and meaning

Find multifaith reflections, prayers and stories that we hope give you some help as you cope with illness and loss.


Spiritual Care in the Aftermath of DisastersSpiritual Care in the Aftermath of Disasters 

Read riveting stories from chaplains who lived through the devastating Joplin, Missouri tornado and provided spiritual care in Japan after the tsunami.

Hear what CNN’s Anderson Cooper has to say about our 50th anniversary and plans to build America’s first palliative care campusCNN’s Anderson Cooper celebrates our 50th anniversary in 2010 and introduces the plans to build the first National Center for Palliative Care Innovation. Watch.



Save the Date for 2012 Wholeness of Life awards dinner

See and hear highlights from our 50th Anniversary Gala.

In a major speech president and CEO Father Smith presents bold vision to strengthen chaplaincy professionIn a major speech president and CEO Father Smith presents bold vision to strengthen chaplaincy profession

The Network on Ministry in Specialized Settings (the COMISS Network) honored HealthCare Chaplaincy’s president and CEO, the Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J., with its highest honor, the 2012 COMISS Medal, in recognition of his contributions to the profession and to the field of chaplaincy care.

A vice president of a multi-state health care system says, “The address you gave about the work yet to be done in the chaplain profession was excellent in my view.” Read it here.

22% of New York Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans have probable diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. Professional chaplains can help them22% of New York Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans have probable diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. Professional chaplains can help them

Chaplain Colonel Eric Olsen of the New York National Guard Joint Forces says that professional chaplains are especially skilled at “sitting in front of somebody, finding out who they are, where they’ve been, and loving them, and empowering them to get to where they feel they need to be. So they no longer feel threatened.”

Read HealthCare Chaplaincy’s testimony and recommendations to the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs on this important issue.

Webinar on Family Issues in the Hospital

Strengthen your professional knowledge and practice with these downloadable webinars:

Meet the Spiritual Bodybuilder-Sister Elaine Goodell  Meet the “Spiritual Bodybuilder.”

At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Sister Elaine Goodell helps "hundreds of patients annually of all faiths – and nonbelievers, too." Read a profile and conversation

Discover Read "The Soul of Bioethics" e-newsletter edited by Dr. Harry (Rick) Moody, AARP's director of academic affairs.

 

 

 
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HealthCare Chaplaincy is a nonprofit organization that depends on the generous support of its contributors to fulfill its mission. All gifts are 100% tax-deductible. Find out ways to give.

Clinical Pastoral Education

This summer enhance your pastoral care skills at a major NY hospital with a leader in clinical pastoral education. Learn more here and here.

“Unlike most clinical pastoral education programs that are housed in one institution, HealthCare Chaplaincy has created a model of education and pastoral/ spiritual care that brings several unrelated institutions under one umbrella. This is the kind of innovation that is its hallmark.” Bishop Rev. Dr. Teresa Snorton, recent executive director of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education

"HealthCare Chaplaincy's professional chaplains are an important part of our health care team. I'm convinced that they help improve outcomes in difficult medical situations. They bridge cultural gaps, and bring comfort and support to patients, families and staff who are dealing with great stress." – Jim Foy, recent president and CEO, St. John's Riverside Hospital, Yonkers, NY

Palliative care helps the whole person –body, mind, and spirit. Understanding and satisfying the patient’s spiritual needs is vital to effective palliative care, and I view HealthCare Chaplaincy to be expert in this field.”– R. Sean Morrison, MD, professor of geriatrics and palliative care, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and director, National Palliative Care Research Center

“HealthCare Chaplaincy remains the gold standard of research and advocacy on behalf of professional chaplaincy. It continues to initiate and sustain dialogues and projects on critical professional issues. We highly value its leadership.” – David A. Lichter, D.Min., executive director, National Association of Catholic Chaplains

Read or subscribe to free e-newsletter HealthCare Chaplaincy Today

Read The Beacon bulletin

Cultural competency leads to better patient care. Find excellent tools to strengthen professional expertise from the Joint Commission, HealthCare Chaplaincy, and City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. Get the newly updated version of "A Dictionary of Patients’ Spiritual & Cultural Values for Health Care Professionals.”

Read the first handbook on Best Practices for the Provision of Spiritual Care to Persons with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury, produced by the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and authored by HealthCare Chaplaincy.

Read Psychological First Aid – a Field Operations Guide for Community Religious Professionals to learn to minister safely and effectively to survivors of disaster events. HealthCare Chaplaincy contributed to content.

Video Oral History
View the personal stories of visionaries and change-makers for spiritually centered health care.