Spiritual Support Manager

Reporting to the Senior Director of Volunteer and Retail Services, the Manager of Spiritual Support is responsible for providing spiritual support for hospital patients and their families, along with GBMC staff and volunteers. The Spiritual Support Manager supervises volunteers and outside on-call clergy who provide end of life support and the delivery of Eucharist/Communion to inpatients.

Education

• Master’s degree in divinity, Theology, Pastoral Counseling, Spirituality or related field from an accredited college or university
• Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) – a minimum of 4 units (1200 clinical hours, 400 pedagogical hours) at an institution accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE)

Experience

• A minimum of five years of spiritual and/or theological leadership experience, preferably in a hospital setting, experience in a faith community setting is valuable, as well

Skills

• Knowledge of both the practice and management of spiritual care in a health care setting
• Interpersonal and verbal communication skills necessary to communicate effectively with a wide variety of patients, families, hospital staff, as well as a team of volunteers
• Able to provide spiritual care and counsel that respects diversity and differences including, but not limited to culture, gender, sexual orientation, and religious practice
• Ability to minister during traumatic or highly stressful events

Licensures, Certifications

• Ordination to Ministry
• Endorsement in accordance with faith tradition for service as a professional chaplain
• Board Certified Chaplaincy from accredited spiritual care organization (APC, NACC, NAJC, APCE) and maintenance of required annual CEU’s (50 hours)
• Certification in Critical Incident Stress Management is encouraged

Physical Requirements    

• Ability to stand and walk for up to seventy-five percent (75%) of the work time.
• Utilization of hospital-provided PPE, ability to visit with all patients regardless of isolation status

Working Conditions  

• Normal working environment; Occasional on-call support for evenings and weekends

 
Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads and supports a broad range of professional spiritual care services to support the spiritual, religious, and emotional needs of care recipients and caregivers in inpatient, outpatient, and community settings
• Provides spiritual leadership and support during healthcare system sponsored programming and events
• Promotes collaboration and ongoing communication with local spiritual community professionals
• Responds to consultations and referrals made by members of the interdisciplinary care team, including physicians, nurses, the palliative team, and social work
• Participates in patient rounds on various units in the hospital
• Visits patients promptly after admission with attention to the critically and seriously ill, and those in need of guidance and counseling
• Enters necessary notations on patient's chart and communicates with medical team concerning the patient and his/her condition as necessary. Works with other members of the health team alerting them to specific patient needs and serves as a staff resource regarding religious beliefs, practices and rituals
• Understands and maintains denominational affiliations of patients and families, providing care appropriate to an individual’s practices and needs, connecting to community clergy as needed for faith-specific care
• Serves as a member of the Hospital Code Blue team, offering spiritual support and emotional reassurance to patients, families and medical response team
• Responds as able to Rapid Response and Stroke Alert pages to provide spiritual and emotional reassurance to patients, families, and medical response team
• Review and authorize requests for religious exemptions for vaccinations in coordination with Employee Health
• Provides debriefing and ongoing support to teams that have experienced traumatic or difficult circumstances (e.g. workplace violence, death of a colleague, multiple losses over a short period of time)
• Offer one-on-one counsel to staff experiencing ongoing stress, providing support and referral as indicated
• Prepares obituaries when employees die for hospital-wide notification; orders flowers for their services from the CEO; attends visitation or services as able to offer employee support
• On a rotating basis, provide