International Study of Chaplains’ Attitudes About Research

Abstract

An online survey was conducted by twelve professional chaplain organizations to assess chaplains' attitudes about and involvement in research. A total of 2,092 chaplains from 23 countries responded to the survey. Over 80% thought research was definitely important and nearly 70% thought chaplains should definitely be research literate. Just over 40% said they regularly read research articles and almost 60% said they occasionally did. The respondents rated their own research literacy as 6.5 on a 0-10 scale. Significant positive inter-correlations were found among all four measures: importance of (a) research and (b) research literacy; (c) frequency of reading articles; and (d) research literacy rating. Approximately 35% were never involved, 37% had been involved, 17% were currently involved, and 11% expected to be involved in research. The last three groups were significantly more likely to think research and research literacy were important and to read research articles than chaplains who were never involved in research. Given chaplains' interest in research, actions should be undertaken to facilitate further research engagement.

Toward a Fully Fledged Integration of Spiritual Care and Medical Care

“…The research field of spirituality in health care is relatively new: until the 1980s, the word spirituality did not even appear in Medline, 27 but in the past decade, it has taken an enormous leap forward. 22,28 Although spiritual care professionals have endorsed a research-informed approach to practice, 29 the research available to inform that practice is still in early stages of development 30 and the practice of spiritual care professionals has had little direct benefit from the research developments in their field. 11 The limited validity and visibility of spiritual care professionals in health care can, in part, be attributed to the way spiritual care professionals are traditionally trained to avoid an agenda in their encounters with patients and rather to respond to any presenting issue.…”

Recent Progress in Chaplaincy-Related Research

“…Approximately three-fourths of the healthcare chaplains from VA and military and 42% of those from civilian settings considered their current chaplaincy practices to be evidence-based, with over half in the VA and military samples and 94% in the civilian sample indicating that they would like their chaplaincy care to be more evidence-based. Another survey of over 2,000 chaplains from 23 countries suggests that these attitudes are not limited to chaplains in the US (Snowden et al., 2017). Over 80% of the chaplains who responded to the survey thought research was definitely important and nearly 70% thought chaplains should definitely be research literate.…”

Evidence-Based Spiritual Care Practice in the Canadian Context: Twenty Years Later

“…In reviewing texts with evidence-based spiritual care, a key theme was the importance of training in research literacy (Carr, 2015;Fitchett et al, 2014;McCarroll, 2015;Snowden et al, 2017;Tartalia, Fitchett, Dodd-McCue, Murphy, & Derrickson, 2013). In their survey of research training for chaplain residency students in the US, Fitchett, Tartaglia, Dodd-McCue, and Murphy ( 2012) described basic research literacy as the ability to access, critically appraise, and implement relevant research findings.…”