APC e-News September 2009

by Brian Hughes BCC

The Association of Professional Chaplains is thrilled to present a plethora of directly applicable and in-depth workshops during and prior to our annual conference in Schaumburg, IL from April 10-14, 2010. The theme, Professional Chaplaincy: Reaching New Heights, sets the stage for workshops that will deliver cutting-edge presentations, evidence-based best practices and a wide variety of helpful resources.

90-Minute Workshops

From a diverse and deep field of 100 proposals, the 2010 Workshops Subcommittee hand-selected the top 58 workshops, which will be offered over five different time slots during the conference. These workshops offer a breadth of topics while not sacrificing depth of content.

The presenters this year are the cr�me de la cr�me in areas of pastoral care research, evidence-based best practices, diversity, clinical expertise and professionalism within the field of chaplaincy. The cost of these workshops is included with conference registration.

Professional Development Intensives

The subcommittee also selected 16 pre-conference Professional Development Intensives ( Pre-Conference Workshops). These four- and eight-hour workshops provide the opportunity for in-depth study of the topics being presented.

The good news this year, when economic realities are making it more and more difficult to attend such superb continuing education opportunities, is that we have dropped the price to $50 for a four-hour PDI and a mere $100 for an eight-hour one. These begin on the Thursday before the conference, April 8, and continue through Saturday, April 10.

Complete details and online registration will be available on the APC Web site in late November, and conference registration brochures will be mailed at that time. Please take this opportunity to invite colleagues in your area to attend.

Chaplain Brian P. Hughes BCC, currently on paternity leave and relocated to Dallas, TX, was most recently staff chaplain at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Magee Rehabilitation Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. He serves as the 2010 Conference Workshops Subcommittee chair and may be contacted at [email protected].

Proposed JC Cultural Competence, Patient-Centered Care Requirements Include Professional Chaplains
by Sue Wintz BCC

The Joint Commission is developing proposed requirements to advance effective communication, cultural competence and patient-centered care for the hospital accreditation program. A multidisciplinary Expert Advisory Panel, representing a broad range of stakeholders, is providing guidance regarding the principles, measures, structures and processes that serve as the foundation for the proposed requirements. I am pleased to be able to advocate for our profession as a member of this panel. At the earliest, any implementation of the proposed requirements would occur in January 2011. The proposed standards, information on the project, and a listing of the expert panel members, can be found at the Joint Commission Web site.

The expert advisory panel has worked together by e-mail, as well as face-to-face meetings. Panelists have recommended that all the proposed standards be adopted and implemented by the Joint Commission. A decision will be made about which standards will be approved in the next few months.

The expert panel is also involved in the development of an implementation guide to accompany the approved standards. This Web-based guide will include numerous resources for hospitals to use as they seek to meet the new standards through Examples of Performance.

The panel has recognized the importance of religious and spiritual beliefs and values as part of cultural competence and patient-centered care. Resources to address these - including screening, the role of the professional chaplain in assessing and meeting needs, chaplain standards of practice, and ways hospitals can be welcoming to persons of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds - are being submitted for inclusion in the implementation guide.

The proposed standards represent an important step in the recognition of spiritual care and professionally trained certified chaplains as integral to quality health care.

Rev. Susan K. Wintz MDiv BCC is the president of APC. She serves as staff chaplain at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, AZ and may be contacted at [email protected].

Screening for Spiritual Struggle Webinar Sept. 23

Save on travel and time with APC's Professional Chaplaincy Webinar, "Screening for Spiritual Struggle," presented by Rev. James L. Risk III BCC and Chaplain George Fitchett DMin PhD BCC. The 90-minute Webinar will be held on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at noon Central Time.

Growing research evidence outlines the negative physical and emotional effects of spiritual struggle on patients. Many pastoral care departments lack the resources to assess every patient and need to triage chaplain resources in a way that directs pastoral care where it can be most effective.

Risk and Fitchett will present a brief spiritual screening protocol that can be administered by non-chaplain health care staff to identify patients who may be experiencing spiritual struggle and refer them to health care chaplains. They will discuss research that demonstrates the negative physical and emotional effects of spiritual struggle. In addition, they will share the results of a 12-month pilot study of this screening protocol.

This presentation will be "Webcast," with audio connections by toll-free conference call. To participate, all that is needed is a phone and a computer with Internet access. As a Webinar participant, you will be able to interact with the presenters, who will ask questions of the audience and answer questions posed by participants. No special software or downloads are required.

Webinars are priced per computer terminal, not per participant. That means you can invite as many people to join you as can fit in your conference room, or cluster around your computer screen and speaker phone. Some chaplains invite colleagues from other organizations to join them for the Webinar, engage in discussion afterward and share the cost.

Several days before the Webinar, you will receive an e-mail reminder that will include the appropriate telephone numbers, Web links, access codes and handouts that you can print out in advance of the Webinar.

October 20, 2009, "Soulful Aging: The Wisdom of Elders," presented by Scott Cartwright (register by October 5)
November 5, 2009 "Professional Chaplains and Healthcare Quality Improvement: A Research Collaborative," presented by Dr. Nancy Berlinger (register by October 21)

Plus, if you missed August's Webinar, "Are Your Chaplains Competent? Developing a Competency Validation Process & Measurement Tools for Chaplains," you can still benefit from this learning opportunity by purchasing a recording of the Webinar at the APC Store. The downloadable recording package includes an MP3 audio file that you can listen to on your computer at your convenience, and a PDF file of slides and handouts so you can follow along with the presentation.

Come, Let's Celebrate National Family Caregivers Month
by Harry Burns BCC

National Family Caregivers Month is organized each November by the National Family Caregivers Association. It is a time of reflection for many caregivers around the world. This time is designated to express thanks, support, educate and assure caregivers of the excellent job they are doing. Chaplains, I challenge you to join the Association of Professional Chaplains and myself in celebrating this most deserving observance. All of us probably can name at least one person that is caring for someone who is unable to take care of themselves. What a great opportunity to promote safety and health, and reminder for all of us to pay attention to some self-care.

As chaplains, we have been charged with expressing passion and compassion to those around us. This act of kindness and thoughtfulness is found not only in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons and in our academic institutions, but also in our very own homes. The NFCA strives to educate, inform and empower over 50 million Americans who care for loved ones with chronic illnesses or disabilities. Having developed care teams for persons that have been chronically ill for many years, I have seen firsthand the significance of reaching out with caring hands and a tender heart. Many of the persons cared for have experienced hopelessness and oftentimes felt abandoned. The caregiver is too often the link to a healthy life vs. a deteriorating life due to stress, access to care and little hope of survival.

Allow me to tell you a short story of a friend I met 32 years ago. When I met this beautiful young lady, she was teaching at a medical school. Full of energy, she spearheaded huge projects with three major hospitals in three different states for the National Institutes of Health. She would later travel to China and Hong Kong with a medical team to study the medical conditions in those countries. While working on her PhD, she did research for two whole summers in the Caribbean Islands. This researcher and health promoter later became chronically ill and is now disabled. She requires the daily care she tried to provide for people around the world. I personally have seen her go from being energetic to not being able to take care of her basic needs. You see, this is my wife, who I married 32 years ago. I am her primary caregiver. I know firsthand what it is like to care for someone you truly love in sickness and in health. And I know there are millions of you out there, just like us.

I ask one simple favor of you today: Take just a few minutes to salute every caregiver, not only in America, but around the world. As people of faith, we should strive daily to enhance the life of others around us. This could include friends, family partners or neighbors. To learn more about the National Family Caregivers Association, I encourage you to go to www.thefamilycaregiver.org. At this Web site, you will be able to learn more about who are the caregivers, caregiver resources, NFC month, their volunteer network, their advocacy department and how you can become a corporate partner.

Final statement: Remember, we are our brothers' keepers. We may be up today, but none of us knows what tomorrow may bring. Reach out and touch somebody's hand and, yes, help make this world a better place to live.

Harry Burns MA BCC is a chaplain at The Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, NC. He serves as an at-large member of the APC Board of Directors and may be contacted at [email protected].

Introducing the Special Interest Group Discussion Forum
by Julie Miller BCC

Many of you who attend the APC conferences have probably experienced attending a Special Interest Group. These are groups where chaplains who share a common professional background and work experience get together face to face to network, share ideas, and have conversation that may lead to educational opportunities for each other and the rest of the membership.

One of the questions every year seems to be: How do we stay connected through the rest of the year? Groups have tried newsletters, mass e-mail lists and various Internet groups to varying success. Often it depends on the work of one or a few, which gets difficult to maintain in the midst of the pressures of our paying jobs.

So is there an easier way? Yes! I would like to introduce a new way APC has provided us to stay connected with chaplains with similar interests: The Discussion Forum, a long-time feature on the APC Web site, now offers the ability for group discussion based on 20 of the APC Special Interest Groups.

You can enter by clicking here, or click on the Discussion Forum button on the left side of the Web site home page. If you have not already registered, you will need to do so by selecting a user name and password (which can be different than the user name and password needed to get onto the Members Only page). If you choose to subscribe to a SIG forum or topic, you will receive an e-mail each time someone makes a new post. Feel free to start a topic, ask a question, share a document or simply introduce yourself. Please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to stay connected with chaplains in the same field - you are not alone!

Rev. Julie M. Miller is a staff chaplain at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital of St. Vincent Hospital & Health Services in Indianapolis, IN. She serves as a member of the Membership Services Council and may be contacted at [email protected].

JC Liaison Network Meeting Focuses on Collaboration and Outcome-Based Health Care
By Jon Overvold BCC

The Joint Commission Liaison Network Meeting was held at the Joint Commission Offices in Oak Brook Terrace, IL on July 7 and 8, 2009. As chair of the Commission on Quality in Pastoral Services, I attended on behalf of APC. Other professional chaplaincy associations were represented, including COMISS Network, National Association of Catholic Chaplains and Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. These representatives worked collaboratively and represented a common voice for professional chaplains.

Under the leadership of Mark Chassen MD, Joint Commission has set out on a number of new initiatives. A champion of quality and safety in health care, Dr. Chassen envisions JC as a leader for the improvement of health care. The operative model at JC now is the example of safety in the airline industry, which is heavily based on studying processes and ensuring that professionals follow established protocols. JC staff members have been trained in Six Sigma, and many Rapid Improvement initiatives are underway. The take away point for APC is that outcome-based medicine is not going away. Standards of practice, while not fully expressing what we do as chaplains, will give us a language to interpret what we do and how it contributes to the patient's plan of care.

One session of the meeting focused on exploring ways in which Joint Commission could better serve all groups in the liaison network. The JC still certifies about 85 percent of hospitals in the US, but there are some emerging competitors that have been given deeming status by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Only a very small percentage of hospitals has "opted out" of JC surveys, and JC is using its own research to link improved quality with hospitals that are accredited by JC.

Joint Commission is clearly looking to become more customer friendly to the health care institutions it serves and to members of the JC Liaison Network.

For example, it has taken a review of all of its written standards and has set out to make them clearer and easier to understand. JC has come to realize that the intent of National Patient Safety Goals was to focus a light on a key safety concern. Instead, it grew into a list with more than 22 items. The list will be reduced to about 11, and some will be worked into the standards themselves.

Another example is the standard for medicine reconciliation. JC realizes that it has added a standard in which there is not yet a clear solution to the identified problem. Surveyors will no longer give citations for non-compliance but will use their reviews for education and sharing ideas about medication safety. Another standard that will be modified has to do with staffing effectiveness. Since JC doesn't have a clear resolution on this issue and because many states are legislating their own staffing levels, JC is looking to remove this standard.

In addition, resources are being collected for the implementation guide for surveyors. Included in that packet will be the key documents of professional chaplaincy (our common standards), citations from our best literature and a link to the standards of practice. Amy Wilson Stronks, on staff at JC, continues to serve on APC's quality commission. She continues to advocate for chaplains as a profession that serves the mission of JC to improve quality and safety in health care.

Jon Overvold MDiv BCC is on the staff of HealthCare Chaplaincy and serves as director of pastoral care and education at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY. He serves as chair of the Commission on Quality in Pastoral Services and may be contacted at [email protected].

Membership Tip of the Month: Peer Review
by Sherry Owensby-Sikes BCC

I joined APC and applied for board certification because I wanted to hold myself to the highest standards available for chaplains. The opportunity to have a peer review is a wonderful part of that. My colleagues know and see things about me that I may not even know, and they are collegial about sharing those with me - not antagonistic. So I eagerly looked forward to mine. It gave me the opportunity to look at where I've been and where I hope to go, what continuing education opportunities I've used for professional development and what kinds of education I might need to move forward. Even if it were not required, I'd request a peer review periodically to help keep me grounded.

No one can "fail," and I believe all can benefit. So if your peer review is due, please don't put it off; peers' schedules become quite busy. It is a gift to yourself to have one. It is part of being faithful to our calling to provide quality pastoral care to those we serve. Furthermore, having served on peer review committees for several of my colleagues, I can say that it is an honor to be asked to serve.

Sherry Owensby-Sikes, BCC is a staff chaplain at Franke at Seaside (ELCA) in Mount Pleasant, SC. She serves as a member of the APC Education Committee and may be contacted at [email protected].

Peer Review Reminders and Tips

Continuing education hours are still required in a year that a peer review is also required.
Peer review can be done via conference call, if needed.
Use the local leadership directory to find the contact information for your state continuing education chair or state representative, who can assist you and answer questions. These local leaders can also help you find a chaplain who may not be familiar to you to serve on your peer review committee, but it is not required to use their services if you can meet the requirements by gathering the committee on your own.
Use the membership directory in the Members Only area of the APC Web site for a list of other chaplains in your state or area.
If you have had to complete a peer review for another cognate group, and that peer review occurred within the past five years, you may submit a record of that peer review to fulfill the requirement for APC; another peer review is not necessary in this case.
To determine if APC has received your endorsement letter or your peer review report form, log into Members Only and check the Update/View your Member Profile option.