Tag: chaplain

5 Foster a collaborative relationship with community clergy and faith-group leaders. The final competency is OL 5 and it asks how you collaborate with local clergy and faith group leaders. In my context, we frequently work with local clergy. Our department owes a lot to them for its founding and funding many years ago. That…

4 Advocate for and facilitate ethical decision-making in one’s workplace. OL 4 is about facilitating ethical decision-making in your institution within and beyond your department. The clearest way to work on this competency is to be involved with the ethics committee within your institution. The Association of Professional Chaplains have guidelines for chaplains and ethics…

3 Understand and function within the chaplain’s institutional culture and systems, including utilizing business best practices appropriate to one’s role in the organization. OL 3 will share some of the same overlaps as OL 1. The competency demonstrated here is that you can take one of the systems within the hospital, understand the culture within…

2 Establish and maintain professional and interdisciplinary relationships. OL 2 demonstrates that the chaplain maintains and develops relationships. There is a beginning step and a sustaining step. Relationships are at the very core of this profession. I mentioned doing little trivia games on the units and using a bracket. Before having done this I had…

1 Promote the integration of spiritual care into the life and service of the institution in which one functions. OL 1 is about promoting spiritual care in your institution. In previous competencies, there was discussion about how chaplains needed data to show how their care is a net gain for patients, hospital admins like to…

9 Facilitate group processes in the provision of spiritual care. 10 Make and use spiritual assessments to inform chaplain interventions and contribute to interdisciplinary plans of care. PPS 9 is all about group processes. You need to demonstrate that you are actively participating in providing spiritual care in group settings. When an incident happens and…

7 Develop, coordinate, and facilitate public/semi-public liturgy appropriate to a range of settings and needs. PPS 7 is about the chaplain and liturgy. A range of settings is helpful but the competency is asking for two examples when you lead a ceremony/service to an audience bigger than one family. How you design, organize, and officiate…

4 Triage and manage crises in the practice of spiritual care. PPS 4 is not about triage when used in the scheduling of a chaplain’s plans when their day starts. If you would like to get a better understanding of that practice just in case it helps formulate your approach to competent triage, I recommend…

3 Provide spiritual care that respects diversity, relative to differences in race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, etc. If you feel like you are stepping into chaplaincy from a mostly homogenized background and experience, you may want to get a part-time job in the restaurant industry to grow your PPS3 competency. Restaurant and Healthcare industries typically…

11 Document one’s spiritual care accurately, cautiously, and usefully and in the appropriate records. PPS 11 is about institutional documentation. It is asking how accuracy, caution, and usefulness have been a part of your documentation. It could be in the medical record, email notes to colleagues, progress logs, etc. Then you need to give the…