A survey of chaplains' roles in pediatric palliative care: integral members of the team.

To date, the field of health care chaplaincy has had little information about how pediatric palliative care (PPC) programs meet the spiritual needs of patients and families. We conducted a qualitative study consisting of surveys of 28 well-established PPC programs in the United States followed by interviews with medical directors and professional chaplains in 8 randomly selected programs among those surveyed. In this report, we describe the PPC chaplain activities, evidence regarding chaplain integration with the PPC team, and physician and chaplain perspectives on the chaplains' contributions.

The role of professional chaplains on pediatric palliative care teams: perspectives from physicians and chaplains.

Context: Pediatric palliative care (PPC) specialists recognize spiritual care as integral to the services offered to seriously ill children and their families. Little is known about how PPC programs deliver spiritual care.

Objective: The goal of this pilot study was to begin to describe the role of professional chaplains in established PPC programs in children's hospitals in the United States.

Chaplains and quality improvement: can we make our case by improving our care?

To date, the field of health care chaplaincy has little information about what constitutes "quality spiritual care. "A qualitative study of four focus groups in New York, Illinois, Arizona, and California was conducted to gather preliminary information about how health care chaplains' experience and understand "quality" and "quality improvement" in spiritual care. The study revealed that many chaplains feel a tension inherent in the task of measuring spiritual care services; how does one evaluate interactions that may seem ineffable? The study also enumerated chaplains' creative efforts, often shaped by institutional contexts and cultures, to address these difficulties in measuring spiritual services.