The Role of the Healthcare Chaplain: A Literature Review |
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| Authors: | Fiona Timmins Sílvia Caldeira Maryanne Murphy Nicolas Pujol Greg Sheaf Elizabeth Weathers |
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| Institution: | 1. The School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland;2. Institute of Health Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal;3. Catholic University of Lille, Lille, France;4. Library of Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland;5. RCSI-Medical University of Bahrain, Busaiteen, Bahrain |
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| Abstract: | Healthcare chaplains operate in many healthcare sites internationally and yet their contribution is not always clearly understood by medical and healthcare staff. This review aims to explore the chaplains’ role in healthcare, with a view to informing best practice in future healthcare chaplaincy. Overall the extent of the provision and staffing of chaplaincy service internationally is unclear. From this review, several key spiritual and pastoral roles in healthcare emerge including a potential contribution to ethical decision making at the end of life. Healthcare chaplains are key personnel, already employed in many healthcare organizations, who are in a pivotal position to contribute to future developments of faith-based care, faith-sensitive pastoral, and spiritual care provision. They also have a new and evolving role in ethical support of patient, families and healthcare teams. |
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| Keywords: | chaplain healthcare roles |
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