The Assessment Process

Taking your organization’s expressed goals and needs as a starting point, the assessment evaluates the current level of pastoral care service and proposes models of pastoral care that best fit your organization’s unique attributes (size, locale, specialization of service, religious, cultural and ethnic composition of patients and staff, etc.).

Your individualized assessment report will address the following questions and propose specific steps for moving forward, including:

• How can your organization’s spiritual caregivers better serve the religious, ethnic and cultural composition of the patients and staff?



• How can multifaith chaplaincy personnel more effectively meet the spiritual and/or emotional needs of all patients and staff, including those of no professed faith?



• How can your chaplains contribute to overall patient/client satisfaction?



• What are the benefits to your staff of having professionally certified chaplains?



• How can the pastoral care department contribute to the satisfactory resolution of patient complaints and difficult cases?
  
  
• How can your pastoral care department better reflect the organization’s commitment to best practices?



• How can chaplaincy personnel maximize relations with local clergy and congregations of all denominations, thereby amplifying an important source of referrals?



• What, if any, educational component should be included within the pastoral care department?



• How can chaplains be more integrated on the multidisciplinary team and be a more significant source of referrals to other organizational staff?