What do Health Care Chaplains do? Using Experience Sampling Methods in Hospital Ministry
Kevin Massey, MDiv, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
Marilyn Barnes, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
Dana Villines, Advocate Health Care
Tom Summerfelt, Advocate Health Care
BACKGROUND: The specific interventions and intended effects of chaplaincy work are poorly understood and no standardized language to communicate that work exists. A taxonomy of chaplaincy activities would assist chaplains in better describing their work and would assist inter-disciplinary team members in understanding it and requesting it.
METHODS: As part of a mixed methods project to build a taxonomy of chaplaincy activities, an experience sampling method was employed to gain a live time element for the inventory. In an experience sampling method, three research chaplains were paged at random intervals during each shift and asked to record, from an inventory of pre-identified options, the precise activity in which they were currently engaged in an electronic survey, via a hand held device. The research chaplains were paged six times per shift for 28 days and identified if they were engaged in spiritual care or another activity such as administrative duties or on break. If they selected that they were engaged in spiritual care, they also recorded an intended effect from the inventory for the person with whom the intervention was performed. A free text box was provided to describe the non-spiritual care activity if this option was selected.
RESULTS: Experiencing sampling paging resulted in 248 entries in the electronic survey. On analysis, the chaplains spent 42% of their time with patients, 36% with a family member/friend and 36% with the care team. Chaplains also spent 56% of time providing Spiritual Care and the other 44% of their time was spent on administrative/clerical work and personal time. The top three attested intended effects chaplains used during this step were “Aligning care plan with patient’s values” 26%; “Establish a relationship of care and support” 21%; and “Journeying with someone in the grief process” 19%.
CONCLUSIONS: Chaplains can use a standardized language with success in characterizing their activities. Further, chaplain time allocation reveals interesting patterns of the persons for whom chaplains provide care. Chaplain time spent with patients in this study compares favorably to other studies with other inter-disciplinary team members.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This project was funded by a generous grant from the New York based Health Care Chaplaincy from The John Templeton Foundation.
Marilyn Barnes, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
Dana Villines, Advocate Health Care
Tom Summerfelt, Advocate Health Care
BACKGROUND: The specific interventions and intended effects of chaplaincy work are poorly understood and no standardized language to communicate that work exists. A taxonomy of chaplaincy activities would assist chaplains in better describing their work and would assist inter-disciplinary team members in understanding it and requesting it.
METHODS: As part of a mixed methods project to build a taxonomy of chaplaincy activities, an experience sampling method was employed to gain a live time element for the inventory. In an experience sampling method, three research chaplains were paged at random intervals during each shift and asked to record, from an inventory of pre-identified options, the precise activity in which they were currently engaged in an electronic survey, via a hand held device. The research chaplains were paged six times per shift for 28 days and identified if they were engaged in spiritual care or another activity such as administrative duties or on break. If they selected that they were engaged in spiritual care, they also recorded an intended effect from the inventory for the person with whom the intervention was performed. A free text box was provided to describe the non-spiritual care activity if this option was selected.
RESULTS: Experiencing sampling paging resulted in 248 entries in the electronic survey. On analysis, the chaplains spent 42% of their time with patients, 36% with a family member/friend and 36% with the care team. Chaplains also spent 56% of time providing Spiritual Care and the other 44% of their time was spent on administrative/clerical work and personal time. The top three attested intended effects chaplains used during this step were “Aligning care plan with patient’s values” 26%; “Establish a relationship of care and support” 21%; and “Journeying with someone in the grief process” 19%.
CONCLUSIONS: Chaplains can use a standardized language with success in characterizing their activities. Further, chaplain time allocation reveals interesting patterns of the persons for whom chaplains provide care. Chaplain time spent with patients in this study compares favorably to other studies with other inter-disciplinary team members.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: This project was funded by a generous grant from the New York based Health Care Chaplaincy from The John Templeton Foundation.