Spiritual care, pastoral care, and chaplains: trends in the health care literature.

This study analyzes trends in the health care literature based on electronic searches of MEDLINE between the years 1980 and 2006. The search terms used were "spiritual care," "pastoral care," and "chaplain.*" The results document an expected surge in the rate of English-language journal articles about spiritual care beginning in the mid 1990s.

What do chaplains really do? III. Referrals in the New York Chaplaincy Study.

The current study examines patterns of referrals to chaplains documented in the 1994-1996 New York Chaplaincy Study. The data were collected at thirteen healthcare institutions in the Greater New York City area. Of the 38,600 usable records in the sample, 18.

What do chaplains really do? II. Interventions in the New York Chaplaincy Study.

The current study analyzes data from 30,995 chaplain visits with patients and families that were part of the New York Chaplaincy Study. The data were collected at 13 healthcare institutions in the Greater New York City area from 1994-1996. Seventeen chaplain interventions were recorded: nine that were religious or spiritual in nature, and eight that were more general or not specifically religious.