Clinical pastoral education and the value of empirical research: examples from Australian and New Zealand datum.

This article argues in favor of clinical pastoral education programs incorporating research methods as part of a standard neo-curriculum for the 21st Century. It suggests that the benefits of such a curriculum would be useful in scientifically validating and evaluating pastoral care practice at a 'micro,' 'meso' and 'macro' level. This argument is supported with the presentation of Australian and New Zealand descriptive statistical datum exploring the involvement of chaplains in patient bioethical decisions, staff bioethical decision-making and the involvement of chaplains on hospital institutional research ethics committees.