Introducing MyPractice

How many times have you responded to a trauma call? How many times have you been sent to see someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer? Depending on your setting, I would venture to say that there are some types of visits that you have made repeatedly. You may even start to recognize common themes and similar needs expressed by these patients.

Certainly, each conversation unfolds differently. Patients have their own unique stories to tell. In my hospital Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) students are told to enter the rooms of patients with empty hands. This is a reminder to put aside assumptions and to be open and attentive to the unique person they are visiting. But experienced chaplains have learned a great deal from the many people they have accompanied on similar pathways. Clinical practice, which is informed by years of experience, not only honors our teachers (our patients) but also gives our current patients better practice. We frequently speak of how our patients have taught us wonderful things. Unfortunately, all too often, we do not articulate how it informs our practice and how it makes for “good practice” in similar settings.

The Quality Commission of the Association of Professional Chaplains recognizes the need for chaplains to write about their practice. As professional chaplains we need to be in dialogue with each other about what we do, how we do it, and why we do it a certain way. And we need to have a dialogue about the benefits of these practices for our patients. The ultimate goal is to build a consensus about what constitutes “good practice” and eventually establish “Standards of Practice” for chaplains. As with quality improvements in our institutions, this is an ongoing process in order to improve our practice.

Let me give an example of why this is so important at this time. Recently, I was with a group of chaplains discussing our practice with regard to charting. There were almost as many practices as chaplains in the room. We assumed we had the same or similar practice, but the more we discussed it, the more it became evident that we did not. Now suppose someone were to question the manner in which we chart or challenge whether we should even be charting at all. Could we respond by giving evidence that charting is Standard Practice for chaplains? Could we state the limits on disclosure that we follow to ensure the patient’s privacy?

Here’s what we are asking for from you. Write up a description of a practice that you use in your setting. It could be from a one-person chaplaincy department or a service-line specialty in a large teaching hospital. Reflect on the questions mentioned above. Send your practice to PlainViews for publication in MyPractice. The Quality Commission’s Best Practice Committee will work with the Managing Editor of PlainViews to review submissions and select articles for publication. Your submission does not necessarily need to be cutting edge (although that’s okay, too). Remember, we want to identify “good practices” that could be recognized as standard practice.

PlainViews will highlight one article in the second issue of each month. To foster the dialogue we are asking readers to respond to the featured practice within a week so that the responses can be published in the next issue of PlainViews, which comes out at the beginning of the following month. This is a great opportunity to start a process that will move us forward in professional chaplaincy.

So let the dialogue begin!

Send your comments about MyPractice to info@PlainViews.org.