Hospital Chaplain

Description

• The Hospital Chaplain provides spiritual, emotional, and cultural support to patients, families, and staff in accordance with Title 22, CMS Conditions of Participation, and Joint Commission standards related to patient rights, psychosocial support, whole-person care, and culturally competent care.
• The Chaplain serves all hospital units—including Psychiatric Unit, ICU, Medical-Surgical Unit, Operating Room, and the Medical Detoxification Program—and ensures timely access to spiritual care, including on-call responses for urgent needs.
• The Chaplain collaborates with clinical teams to support patient well-being, assist in crisis intervention, provide end-of-life support, facilitate religious rituals when appropriate, and document all patient encounters as part of the medical record.

Requirements

• Provide spiritual, religious, emotional, and cultural support to patients across all units (Psych, ICU, OR pre/post-op, Med-Surg, Detox).
• Assist patients and families in coping with illness, grief, trauma, hospitalization, and recovery.
• Support patients undergoing medical detoxification, including withdrawal-related anxiety, fear, shame, and life-transition      issues.
• Provide crisis intervention and supportive presence during acute distress, code situations, or patient decompensation.
• Assess and respect patient’s religious, cultural, and spiritual beliefs consistent with CMS patient rights and Joint      Commission RI standards.
• Provide reading materials, rituals, prayer, sacraments, meditation, or other spiritual practices as appropriate to patient      preference.
• Deliver trauma-informed, non-coercive spiritual support for patients experiencing mental health crises.
• Maintain appropriate boundaries in accordance with psychiatric best practices.
• Coordinate with the psychiatric team to avoid spiritual content that may worsen symptoms (e.g., delusion reinforcement).
• Participate in interdisciplinary treatment planning when requested.
• Provide support for palliative and end-of-life patients, including anticipatory grief counseling.
• Support families during death or unexpected deterioration; provide presence during withdrawal of care.
• Assist with family notification, viewing, or bereavement rituals in accordance with policy
• Collaborate with nursing, social services, physicians, and ancillary staff to ensure holistic patient care.
• Document all patient encounters in the medical record per CMS and Joint Commission PC standards.
• Attend interdisciplinary rounds when appropriate.
• Participate in care planning for complex or high-risk patients (detox, psychiatric, ICU).
• Uphold patient rights to spiritual care per Title 22, CMS (§482.13), and Joint Commission RI.01.01 standards.
• Maintain confidentiality in accordance with HIPAA.
• Provide services that respect diverse cultural, religious, and personal belief systems.
• Participate in annual competencies, regulatory training, and survey preparedness.
• Provide emotional support and debriefings to staff after traumatic events, patient deaths, or critical incidents.
• Assist in staff education on cultural and spiritual sensitivity, end-of-life care, and communication.
• Maintain relationships with local faith communities for referrals and rites that require clergy of a specific tradition.
• Maintain supplies for spiritual care (sacraments, texts, materials).
• Participate in quality improvement activities and policy development related to spiritual care.
• Performs assigned tasks on Psychiatric Unit when time permits.