SU1.01 – Care for the Transgender Soul: A Catholic Health Care Perspective to Spiritual Care for Trans Persons
Presented by Jill Fisk MATM, Jamez Terry MDiv BCC & Charles Bouchard OP STD
Overview:
While discussions around political and clinical aspects of health care for transgender individuals are common, little attention is given to their spiritual and pastoral lives, even though many have strong religious beliefs. To address this gap, members of the Catholic Health Association’s Subcommittee on Spiritual Care for Transgender and Non-Binary Persons will explore how spiritual care in Catholic health care can be tailored to meet the unique needs of transgender persons and their families. The conversation will feature presenters with extensive experience serving the transgender community within the Catholic health ministry. The unique needs of transgender individuals will be addressed, offering chaplains practical strategies to provide effective pastoral and spiritual care.
Learning Objectives:
- Explore how spiritual/pastoral care can be tailored to meet the unique needs of transgender persons from the voices of panel experts
Level: Intermediate
Handout included: NO
SU1.02 – Caring For The Caregiver; A Quantitative Analysis
Presented by Adam Gaines MSW MDiv BCC
Overview:
This presentation based on recent research by this author will present the benefits of chaplain care to hospital caregivers (nurses, doctors, etc.) as well as meaningful ways, per caregiver voices, to support caregivers. Will present data on the largest study to date on the role chaplains play in supporting caregivers. Caregivers report increased intent to stay, decreased stress and burnout.Learning Objectives:
- Importance of staff support
- Ways of providing staff support
Level: Intermediate
Handout included: YES
SU1.03 – Chaplain- Dog Team Initial Response To Staff Assaults: A Pilot Study
Presented by Laura Ramsey MA BCC
Overview:
We will be sharing the results of research we are conducting this fall at Hershey Medical Center. The study is a pilot project of an initial chaplain response after staff assaults. Kelly Fuddy and I are two chaplains dedicated 100% to staff support. We also have a facility dog between the two of us to support staff. This presentation will offer the results of this pilot study and the responses we get from the surveys afterwards. This research is going through the official IRB process at Hershey Medical Center.Learning Objectives:
- Learn from the findings of this research project what went well in supporting staff after staff assaults and what could be improved
- Think about what could work in chaplain’s own settings to support staff after assaults
Level: Beginner
Handout included: NO
SU1.04 – “Children’s Spirituality Is Like A Child”: Cultivating Space For Spirit In Chaplaincy Assessments and Interventions
Presented by Hannah Sutton-Adams MDiv BCC & Courtney Webb MDiv
Overview:
This workshop begins by inviting participants to engage with Rebecca Nye’s theory of children’s spirituality of relational consciousness and the SPIRIT framework. Then, drawing on recent scholarship presenters demonstrate how Nye’s theories are operative in the Godly Play Method. Presenters will lead the group in a Godly Play story circle and facilitate wondering together. While Godly Play (and Torah Play/Spirit Play) are rooted in a particular religious language systems, presenters propose their benefit for diverse groups of care-recipients. Finally, this workshop encourages participants to imagine utilizing Nye’s frameworks in their assessments and interventions to cultivate care-recipients spiritual expression.Learning Objectives:
- Explore theories of children’s spirituality in relation to spiritual care in settings of illness and crisis
- Invite participants to play with a Godly Play story and wondering as a form of assessment and intervention
- Discuss clinical adaptations of the Godly Play method that support spiritual expression in diverse contexts
Level: Beginner
Handout included: NO
SU1.05 – Collaborating with the Interdisciplinary Team for Quality Improvement: Real World Experience & Take-Home Tips
Presented by Carrie Finegan MDiv BCC, Hillary McGowan BA & Kendra Skeens MBA BSN RN CSSBB
Overview:
The Spiritual Care Department at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is leading a multi-year, 3-phase Bereavement Support Services Business Process Improvement (BPI) Project in collaboration with the BPI team and multiple disciplines including Child Life, Psychology, Nursing, Physicians, Social Work, Palliative Care, and multiple clinical areas including NICU, Hem/Onc/BMT, Emergency Department, Fetal Center, and more. Our interactive workshop will teach participants how we launched the project, how we communicate and collaborate with our diverse partners, the challenges we faced, the accomplishments we are making, and how they can adapt our process for their own clinicalLearning Objectives:
- Learn how to communicate and work creatively with interdisciplinary partners in the pediatric clinical setting on complex system-wide projects
- Learn how to collaborate with the interdisciplinary team to create a streamlined, evidence-based, and quality end-of-life and bereavement process
- Learn how to utilize the interdisciplinary team to create quality-improvement projects that leverage the strengths of chaplains and the Spiritual Care team
Level: Advanced
Handout included: YES
SU1.07 – Digital Spiritual Care: Moving Outside the Walls of Our Hospitals to Better Meet the Spiritual Needs of Our Patients
Presented by Daniel Roberts MDiv & Curtisha Grant MDiv
Overview:
Thanks to technological innovations, healthcare continues to evolve. More and more, patient care takes place in outpatient settings, allowing patients to receive treatment and recover from home instead of in inpatient facilities. However, these patients still need spiritual support. We will discuss the importance of embracing digital platforms for spiritual care, review how some systems are innovatively utilizing digital spiritual care platforms, and highlight Baylor Scott & White Health’s digital spiritual care journey, including the Community Support Feature on the myBSWHealth app, accessed by approximately fifteen thousand unique users each month.Learning Objectives:
- Discuss the need for digital spiritual care
- Explore current approaches to digital spiritual care
- Highlight BSWH’s continuing digital spiritual care journey
Level: Beginner
Handout included: NO
SU1.08 – Finding Our Place At The Table: Spiritual Care Documentation And HCPCS Codes
Presented by Antonina Olszewski MSQ, Cathy Chang MD, David Goldstrom D.Min BCC CPSP LMFT AAMFT Appr & iv BCC & Charles Valenti-Hein PhD BCC
Overview:
HCPCS codes provide a basic, standardized language to describe care provided within the healthcare delivery system. By utilizing the newly authorized chaplain HCPCS codes, a spiritual care intervention can be directly tied to clinical outcomes and impacts for a patient. This demonstrates that chaplains are an integral part of the interdisciplinary care team. Brainstorming together, we will explore how these codes allow us to move our care into proactively addressing patients’ spiritual needs rather than reactively waiting for others to call upon us.Learning Objectives:
- To discuss the importance of proactive spiritual care in positive patient outcomes
- To explore why HCPCS codes are important to clinical chaplains and how the codes can help improve our care
- To explore the use of HCPCS codes in expanding the reach of spiritual care
Level: Beginner
Handout included: YES
SU1.09 – Identifying Barriers to Optimal Spiritual Care for Adult Hospice Patients at End-of-Life: A Cross Disciplinary Study
Presented by Marcella Kubalsky DMin
Overview:
The primary goal of this research aims to identify perceived barriers to providing optimal spiritual care at the end of life in adult hospice patients. The qualitative and phenomenological study explores end-of-life spiritual care through the unique perspectives of the interdisciplinary hospice team members working with end-of-life patients in the Los Angeles area of Southern California. The hospice disciplines of physician, nurse, social worker, and chaplain participate in individual guided and semi-structured interviews answering questions about their experience and perceptions of barriers to spiritual care provided to patients at end-of-life. The study’s precedent is that these barriers are periodically not identified until after the patient dies or are not identified at all, even in the case review. This can result in the patient experiencing a more difficult death than necessary, leaving the family, and loved ones feeling that the patient died in crisis. The data collected from the guided interviews will be categorized both by discipline and common themes, and then indications will be applied to the entire interdisciplinary team that ideally provides unified, collaborative end-of-life care.Learning Objectives:
- The primary goal of this research aims to identify perceived barriers to providing optimal spiritual care at the end of life in adult hospice patients
- Specific to hospice chaplains as the primary providers of spiritual care on the hospice team, implications from the data may help hospice chaplains identify and avoid potential barriers to optimal spiritual care when viewed from perspectives of other disciplines
- To explore implications for best practices when providing spiritual care to end-of-life patients on comfort care status but in acute care settings
Level: Beginner
Handout included: NO
SU1.10 – Putting The Pc-7 To The Test: Results Of A Multisite Pilot Study
Presented by Dirk Labuschagne MDiv MPH BCC
Overview:
Spiritual assessment plays an important role in guiding spiritual care and is a key chaplain activity. The PC-7, a quantifiable model for assessing and reporting unmet spiritual needs in palliative care (PC) patients developed by a team of PC chaplains, has been well-received by chaplain and palliative audiences alike. Since the development of that model, a multisite pilot study was launched to describe the prevalence of spiritual concern in PC patients, and to test the validity, reliability, and clinical usefulness of the PC-7. This workshop will present study findings and share the experiences of chaplains using the model.Learning Objectives:
- The participant will be able to describe the prevalence of spiritual concerns in palliative care patients
- The participant will be able to describe the validity and reliability of the PC-7 model for spiritual assessment in palliative care
- The participant will be prepared to make an informed decision about recommending the PC-7 model for spiritual assessment to their palliative care colleagues
Level: Intermediate
Handout included: NO
SU1.11 – Readmissions: How Chaplains Can Make A Difference (And Why They Should)
Presented by Brandon Cook MDiv, Calin Tamiian Master in Teologie Biblica & Benjamin Wiles MDiv
Overview:
Hospital readmissions cost an average of $17.4 billion dollars annually and have a deep impact on patients and their caregivers. This workshop will examine the role of chaplains in reducing readmissions. The presenters will discuss original research on the impact of spiritual care on readmissions and share how they partnered with physicians to design a study examining the involvement of palliative care and spiritual care in readmissions. Additionally, they will describe how their system has involved chaplains in the readmissions committees, other institutional structures, faith traditions, and wider community to increase the impact of the spiritual care department.Learning Objectives:
- Explain the importance of patient readmissions within the current healthcare landscape for chaplains, particularly in regard to the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP)
- Explore research related to the impact of spiritual care on readmissions as well as possibilities and limitations in the field of study
- Adapt ways for chaplains to become more involved both in the administration of hospital programs and the care of patients with chronic and ongoing illnesses
Level: Intermediate
Handout included: NO
SU1.12 – The Silent Crisis Of Perinatal Grief
Presented by Dani Helm DMin BCC
Overview:
Perinatal grief is often a silent, disenfranchised grief that has a multidimensional effect, touching body, soul, and spirit. This workshop explores the spiritual impact of perinatal grief and how spirituality and faith are significant coping mechanisms for early pregnancy loss. It will examine the phenomenology of perinatal grief and the narrative influence on the complicated and silent grief of the pregnancy loss journey. Alongside practical applications, it will also include discussing hope for the future related to family planning and the complex grief of infertility and abortion.Learning Objectives:
- To discuss the phenomenology of perinatal loss and grief
- To better understand the silent suffering of perinatal loss and spirituality
- To determine best practices for spiritual care of patients who experience perinatal loss
Level: Intermediate
Handout included: YES
SU1.13 – Elemental, My Dear Watson: What a National Survey About IDT Perceptions of Actual Chaplain Notes and a Qualitative Analysis of the Notes Revealed
Presented by Allison DeLaney MPH MA BCC-PCHAC, Christa Chappelle MDiv BCC & Benjamin Schaefer MDiv BCC
Overview:
Chaplain documentation in electronic medical records varies widely in practice. This workshop provides an overview of existing literature and one large health system’s approach to chaplain documentation. We will focus on our secondary analysis of chaplain notes that were rated extremely helpful vs. moderately/not helpful by IDT colleagues. Participants will have the opportunity to learn the nuances of coding chaplain chart notes in a hands-on exercise. This experience will help the participant have the ability to better review and assess the quality of notes within their own health system.Learning Objectives:
- Identify key themes in chaplain documentation literature
- Become familiar with the findings of this mixed methods national documentation project
- Critically reflect on chaplain documentation in one’s own setting and begin to develop strategies for an evidence based approach
Level: Intermediate
Handout included: YES
ONLINE VIDEO/AUDIO RECORDING RETURN POLICY
Effective as of: July 1, 2023
This applies to Annual Conference Recordings, Professional Education Webinar Recordings, Chaplain Symposium Recordings, and Webinar Journal Club Recordings.
