Referrals to Health Care Chaplaincy by Head Nurses

Abstract

To determine in which situations head nurses refer patients to health care chaplains and to detect significant influential factors, 192 head nurses from 117 health care institutions in the German part of Switzerland were surveyed with regard to situations in which they refer to a chaplain. On average, head nurses refer "often" to a chaplain in their daily work in situations where patients are dying or need religious-spiritual service or support, but they refer only "rarely" to a chaplain in situations where patients or their families express negative feelings or where other psychosocial needs are present. Moreover, the religiosity of head nurses, working in a general acute care hospital and a positive evaluation of the chaplaincy services determine significantly whether a head nurse calls for a chaplain in a particular situation or not. For quality improvement of chaplains' work, health care chaplains have to integrate themselves into the care team. On the contrary, standardized referral processes between chaplains and nurses as well as physicians have to be elaborated to reduce subjective factors (eg, the religiosity of the nurse) from the process of referring.

Healthcare Providers’ Perceptions about the Role of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Services in Substance Use Outpatient Treatment

“…Those with previous positive experiences, more favorable attitudes, or an accurate understanding of R/S and chaplaincy services appeared more amenable to having R/S discussions with patients and making referrals to chaplaincy services. These findings are consistent with previous studies [ 41 ] and the substantial variability of use of chaplaincy services among clinical staff [ 28 , 29 ].…”

The Role of the Pastoral Practitioner in Health Outcomes and Wellbeing During Acute Illness: Exploring the Patient Experience of a Pastoral Visit

“…It is possible that religious respondents connected with or appreciated the pastoral practitioner’s visit more than other patients may have, or may have completed the survey because they value the notion of pastoral care. Studies have found “the more religious or spiritual a patient is, the more he/she appreciated religious interventions and talking about religious/spiritual issues” (Winter-Pfändler, Flannelly, & Morgenthaler, 2011, p. 158). In his study, using the same data collection instrument, VandeCreek (2004) came to similar conclusions.…”

Nurse religiosity and spiritual care

“…Swiss nurses who were religious were more likely to make chaplain referrals (Winter‐Pfandler et al . ).…”