What are the responsibilities and job description for the Chaplain position at Wellstar Health System, Inc.?
Responsibilities
Core Responsibilites and Essential Functions* Provide spiritual, religious, and emotional care to patients, residents, families, and their support systems, irrespective of faith tradition or spiritual path.
* Possess a working knowledge of major world religions, including an understanding of the integration of a patient?s belief system and values in plan of care decision making.
* Perform spiritual assessments to gather and evaluate the spiritual/religious, emotional, and social needs, hopes, and resources of patients/residents and their family; determine appropriate spiritual interventions, including rituals/sacraments, spiritual support, reflection, advisement, crisis intervention, and bereavement support; identify potential obstacles for the delivery of effective spiritual care.
* Function as advocate for the patient/resident/family; identify and interpret the impact of cultural beliefs and practices on the plan of care.
* Offer emotional support and perform legacy work with patients nearing end-of-life; provide bereavement support to families; identify anticipatory grief and provide resource assistance with navigating decedent care arrangements, as needed.
* Facilitate advance care planning with patients/residents and their families/support systems.
* Document in EMR (electronic medical record) all spiritual health encounters and interventions to ensure continuity and cohesiveness in care.
* Collaborate with multidisciplinary team on the care plan to ensure spiritual health support and care; contribute to the well-being of patients/residents and their family/support system, including attendance at IDRs (interdisciplinary rounds).
* Participate in on-call rotation (including evenings, overnights, weekends, and holidays) on a regular basis, as determined by site-specific needs; required of all chaplains.
* Hospice chaplains ONLY ? Participate in interdisciplinary team (IDT) meetings and contribute to the plan of care to address the spiritual needs of the hospice patient and their family.
* Hospice chaplains ONLY ? Determine an individualized plan of care that contributes to the overall care of the patient and family, is measurable, documented in the EMR, and is updated regularly; develop visit order frequencies for follow-up visits to provide spiritual support.
* Hospice chaplains ONLY - Provide spiritual health care in the home hospice, IPU (inpatient unit), and GIP (general inpatient), and ED (emergency department)/outpatient settings as assigned.
* Outpatient chaplains ONLY - Provide spiritual health care in WellStar Medical Group settings, including attending to urgent spiritual needs in other WellStar outpatient settings.
* Provide spiritual, religious, and emotional care to team members or their family members following a death, regardless of faith tradition, spiritual path, heritage, or culture, including, debriefings, crisis intervention, support, and memorial services, etc.
* Design and offer education on self-care for the professional caregiver.
* Serve as a subject matter expert and educate physicians and clinical staff regarding spiritual, religious, existential, and/or cultural components that influence beliefs/values which impact the decision-making process and care goals.
* Collaborate with ethics team to provide learning experiences for medical Residents in the realm of spiritual health, including crucial decision-making conversations, sensitivity to religious beliefs, and cultural/personal values impacting goals of care .
* Foster collaborative relationships with community clergy and faith group leaders to meet the diverse religious and spiritual health needs of patients, residents, their families/support systems, and team members.
* Contact community clergy or religious leaders as needed for specific faith traditions? rites, sacraments, ordinances, spiritual practices, or for consultation.
* Support community clergy in the visitation of their own congregants.
* Collaborate with spiritual health volunteers, representative of a diversity of faith traditions, to meet the spiritual health needs of patients, residents, their families/support systems, and team members.
* Assume leadership responsibility for spiritual health initiatives such as spiritual health Volunteer Program; Ethics Committee and other committees; emergency management and crisis intervention; facilitation of support groups; spiritual health continuing education for faith communities, civic organizations, and clinicians; mentoring of CPE students; and orientation of new spiritual health team members.
* Participate in performance and quality improvement projects, data gathering, and strategic initiatives to support system and local site level spiritual health daily operations and growth.
* Develop, coordinate, and officiate chapel and prayer services, as well as services of remembrance and celebration, appropriate to diverse faith traditions, various settings, and site-specific/community needs.
* Maintain a working knowledge of trends in the field of spiritual health and Joint Commission requirements, ensuring compliance with evidenced-based practice.
* Attend department meetings at local site and at system level, including continuing education opportunities.
* Hospice chaplains ONLY ? Adhere to current national standards and guidelines for Hospice Chaplaincy as directed by NHPCO (National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization), CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), and Joint Commission.
Required for All Jobs
Qualifications
Required Minimum EducationRequired Minimum Experience
Required
Required Minimum Skills
Required Minimum License(s) and Certification(s)
Additional Licenses and Certifications
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