Distress and self-care among chaplains working in palliative care

Kelsey B. White · Patricia E. Murphy · Jane Jeuland · George A. Fitchett

25 citations0/0 files storedPalliative & Supportive Care

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology Palliative and Oncologic Care Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of burnout and distress among palliative care professionals has received much attention since research suggests it negatively impacts the quality of care. Although limited, research suggests low levels of burnout or distress among healthcare chaplains; however, there has been no research among chaplains working in specific clinical contexts, including palliative care. OBJECTIVE: This study explored the distress, self-care, and debriefing practices of chaplains working in palliative care. METHOD: Exploratory, cross-sectional survey of professional chaplains. Electronic surveys were sent to members of four professional chaplaincy organizations between February and April 2015. Primary measures of interest included Professional Distress, Distress from Theodicy, Informal Self-care, Formal Self-care, and debriefing practices. RESULT: More than 60% of chaplains working in palliative care reported feeling worn out in the past 3 months because of their work as a helper; at least 33% practice Informal Self-care weekly. Bivariate analysis suggested significant associations between Informal Self-care and both Professional Distress and Distress from Theodicy. Multivariate analysis also identified that distress decreased as Informal and Formal Self-care increased. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Chaplains working in palliative care appear moderately distressed, possibly more so than chaplains working in other clinical areas. These chaplains also use debriefing, with non-chaplain palliative colleagues, to process clinical experiences. Further research is needed about the role of religious or spiritual beliefs and practices in protecting against stress associated with care for people at the end of life.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 25 citations exist upstream.

References

2017Chaplains Working in Palliative Care: Who They Are and What They Do 2015What do I do? Developing a taxonomy of chaplaincy activities and interventions for spiritual care in intensive care unit palliative care 2011Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Social Support 2008What Do Chaplains Really Do? II. Interventions in the New York Chaplaincy Study 2008Change in Pastoral Skills, Emotional Intelligence, Self-reflection, and Social Desirability Across a Unit of CPE 2013Professional Quality of Life and Associated Factors Among VHA Chaplains

Cited by

2021Scared but Powerful: Healthcare Chaplains’ Emotional Responses and Self-Care Modes during the SARS-Cov-19 Pandemic 2022Spiritual Care

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.