Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Patient Educ Couns. 2022 Sep;105(9):2905-2912. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2022.05.004. Epub 2022 May 10.
Hospital chaplains communicate with patients concerning spirituality/religion, but many aspects of their interactions have received little attention.
Telephone qualitative interviews of ~1 h each were conducted with chaplains and analyzed, drawing on grounded theory.
We interviewed 21 U.S. chaplains. Chaplains have relatively unique characteristics, having relatively more time to spend with patients, and less rigid and less medicalized agendas, while gaining respect/trust as religious figures. Chaplains can thus provide several critical beneficial functions - e.g., obtaining key information from patients/families that can help with decision-making and with diagnosis and treatment, and conveying medical providers' points of view to patients/families. Consequently, chaplains can serve as mediators between patients/families and providers; and also overcome staff biases and "labelling" of patients, and pursue or encourage psychological interventions, in part because psychotherapists are often unavailable.
While past research suggested certain ways how chaplains might benefit hospitals, these professionals can aid these institutions and improve patient care in additional vital, tangible ways.
Hospital administrators, chaplaincy departments, doctors, nurses and others should more fully recognize, encourage and facilitate these functions. Targeted improvements in practice and education can help achieve these goals. The findings suggest, too, several specific questions for further investigation.
医院牧师与患者就精神/宗教问题进行沟通，但他们互动的许多方面都没有得到太多关注。
对 21 名美国牧师进行了大约 1 小时的电话定性访谈，并进行了分析，借鉴了扎根理论。
我们采访了 21 位美国牧师。牧师有相对独特的特点，他们有相对更多的时间与患者相处，并且没有那么严格和医学化的议程，同时作为宗教人物获得尊重/信任。因此，牧师可以提供几个关键的有益功能——例如，从患者/家属那里获取有助于决策以及诊断和治疗的关键信息，并向患者/家属传达医疗服务提供者的观点。因此，牧师可以在患者/家属和提供者之间充当调解人；还可以克服工作人员的偏见和对患者的“标签化”，并进行或鼓励心理干预，部分原因是心理治疗师往往无法提供帮助。
尽管过去的研究表明牧师可能会以某些方式使医院受益，但这些专业人员还可以以其他重要和切实的方式帮助这些机构并改善患者护理。医院管理人员、牧师部门、医生、护士和其他人应该更充分地认识到、鼓励并促进这些功能。有针对性地改进实践和教育可以帮助实现这些目标。调查结果还表明了一些具体问题以供进一步研究。
