The Shared Experience of Personalized Spiritual Care Services Between Hospital Chaplains and Hospital-based Healthcare Providers

Abstract

The research highlighted in this dissertation offers contributions to both the implementation of and literature related to the biopsychosocial-spiritual (BPS-S) approach to healthcare, in particular as it relates to the spiritual care and support hospital-based healthcare providers (HBHPs) receive from hospital chaplains (HCs). Foundational insight into how to integrate hospital chaplaincy support and spiritual care into hospital-based healthcare delivery systems aligns well with the Institute of Medicine's 2001 mandate to defragment our ailing healthcare system and reduce deficits in patient care. Moving past a myopic and strictly biomedical viewpoint of what is included in "patient care" invited investigation about the systemic interplay between provider spiritual health and patient health outcomes. Even though HBHPs who participated in this phenomenological study appreciated the spiritual care received by hospital chaplains, and noted that they were able to provide better patient care as a result, they reported that the true value of the care did not appear to be recognized by hospital administrators. The lack of hospital chaplain inclusion on treatment teams in some units also raised questions about the need for a seamless and well-integrated hospital-based care delivery system. Implications from this study are applied to clinical, research, and educational opportunities in the area of hospital chaplaincy.