The Language of Compassion: Hospital Chaplains' Compassion Capacity Reduces Patient Depression via Other-Oriented, Inclusive Language.

Objectives: Although hospital chaplains play a critical role in delivering emotional and spiritual care to a broad range of both religious and non-religious patients, there is remarkably little research on the best practices or "active ingredients" of chaplain spiritual consults. Here, we examined how chaplains' compassion capacity was associated with their linguistic behavior with hospitalized inpatients, and how their language in turn related to patient outcomes.

Methods: Hospital chaplains ( = 16) completed self-report measures that together were operationalized as self-reported "compassion capacity.