Patient and Family Education

In keeping with the Department of Chaplaincy Service's Mission to deliver "spiritual care and emotional support by maximizing quality in clinical services and pastoral education to patients, families, staff, and the community," chaplains frequently are engaged in patient and family education. This education occurs during the routine care chaplains provide.

Chaplains are involved in different patient care situations where education is part of that interaction. For example, chaplains may educate patients and families regarding the following:

• Patient rights: Referring the patient and family to the "Patient's Rights and Responsibilities" document to help them understand their rights and responsibilities, or inquiring if the patient has any questions about that document.
• Advance Directive: Assisting the patient in understanding and/or completing his or her Advance Directive so that the patient's preferences are clearly stated and is identified as desired. 
• Grief: Describing the grief process to the patient and family, and indicating ways in which grief may be acknowledged and managed constructively.
• Relaxation: Suggesting ways and discovering those resources, techniques, or coping mechanisms that can be used by the patient and family to help reduce anxiety, worry and stress, and increase confidence, peace, and hope.
• Pain management: Assisting the patient manage with his or her pain by drawing upon rites, rituals, prayer, meditation, ceremonies, images (art), scripture and other resources that offer comfort and support to the patient.
• Rehabilitation: Meeting with the patient and family prior to discharge to educate them about those spiritual and/or religious aspects from which the patient can draw strength in the process of rehabilitation, health maintenance and disease management
• Requesting a chaplain: Providing the patient and family information about requesting a chaplain's visit.  Chaplains may be paged through the patient's nurse.
• General information about the hospital or the local community: Helping the patient and family locate various services within the hospital (cafeteria, Gift Shop, Cashier, Automatic Money Teller, lobby areas, telephones, etc.), or information about the local community (shopping, lodging, etc.).
• Funeral Homes, or Crematoriums: Identifying for the family the various services and businesses available in the area, answering questions about practical steps to follow at the time of their loved one's death, showing them a list provided by the Department of Senior Affairs regarding the fees charged by specific funeral homes and crematoriums.
• Coping skills: Helping patients and families identify those spiritual and/or faith traditions or resources to draw upon for comfort and strength in light of the patient's health status.
• Communication with the health care team: Identifying those questions or concerns of the patient and family which are appropriate to discuss with other members of the health care team (physicians, nurses, etc.).
• Accessing the leaders of their faith community: Alerting patients and families that chaplains will request spiritual support, rites, and rituals from representatives from their faith community as desired (e.g. Eucharist Ministers, Sacraments by the hospital's Sacramental Priest, Prayers, etc.).
• Organ Donation: Responding to the patient's and family's questions about organ donation, and helping them locate the appropriate person(s) to help them understand the organ donation process.

This list is not intended to be either inclusive or exclusive, but simply illustrative of some ways that chaplains are involved in patient and family education.

Procedure

Chaplains will offer patient and family education in response to situations as indicated, or to specific requests.

In the process of educating the family, the chaplain will:

• Assess the patient and family's need for spiritual and emotional support.
• Identify information that will benefit the patient and family according to their specific situation or request.
• Provide that information to the patient and family in a manner that is age-appropriate, and respectful of, and sensitive to, cultural-psycho-social-behavioral-spiritual components.
• Enlist other members of the health care team as needed in order to make available information best provided by physicians, nurses, social workers, and others.
• Locate others identified, and/or requested by the patient and family so their perspective or counsel is included in the education process.
• Ensure that the patient and family are satisfied with the information they have received, and that their needs are met for the moment.
• Check back with the patient and family as indicated to ascertain if they require further spiritual and/or emotional support.

The chaplain will appropriately document each instance of patient and family education. This documentation will serve as a basis of communicating with the interdisciplinary team.

Definitions

Chaplain: A member of the Department of Chaplaincy Service, who meets the standards and criteria of the department required to function as one of the following:

• Staff Chaplain
• Clinical Education Program Resident Chaplain
• Clinical Education Program Intern Chaplain
• Clinical Education Program Extern Chaplain

Patient and Family Education: A process by which a chaplain interacts with patients and families in order to facilitate their understanding and comprehension of information related to the patient's care and accompanying care decisions.