WJC13 Session 2 - The Persistence of Religion as a Master Status for Chaplains

Description:

Please note: this recording does contain some audio issues that were beyond the presenter's control.

Overview:
Research has been conducted on how chaplains perceive their role. Less is known about how recipients of care perceive the role of chaplains. This study analyzed the interviews of 38 persons who had received spiritual care from a chaplain. Respondents see the role as multidimensional through the framework of “jobs that need to be done,” acknowledging that chaplains offer social listening, emotional comfort, and functional practical religious support. Religion provides a master status for chaplains from the perspective of care recipients because religion is the least ambiguous part of a chaplain’s job. These findings complicate the perspective of research and chaplain narratives that emphasize “presence.” The authors suggest that chaplains could mitigate professional identity tensions by centering desires for religious and spiritual care.

• To discuss the role of chaplains from the perspective of care recipients
• Understand how chaplains can lessen role confusion for care receivers
• Understand patient centered research through the use of qualitative interviews

Reading:
Reading: Lawton, A. & Cadge, W. (2023). The Persistence of Religion as a Master Status for Chaplains. Review of Religious Research, 65(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0034673X231215280

Presenters:
Cate Beaulieu-Desjardins MDiv MPH BCC, is the Assistant Director of Research Development for Transforming Chaplaincy, where she focuses primarily on research in pediatric spiritual care. Cate completed the Transforming Chaplaincy Research Fellowship in 2019 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at KU Leuven in Belgium. She is co-editor for the forthcoming book “Case Studies in Pediatric Chaplaincy” (Pickwick, 2024). Cate concurrently serves as the Executive Director for the Mennonite Healthcare Fellowship and the Anabaptist Centre for Healthcare Ethics. Cate is endorsed and credentialed by Mennonite Church USA as one of the first openly LGBTQ+ persons granted ministry credentials in the denomination.

Rev. Beth Muehlhausen PhD MDiv BCC LCSW is the Spiritual Care Research Program Manager at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas. She coordinates research related to spirituality, religion and spiritual care with the Houston Methodist Research Institute and interdisciplinary colleagues as well as research within the spiritual care department. She is also a researcher and instructor with Transforming Chaplaincy. She is a qualitative researcher utilizing hermeneutic phenomenology and mixed methods. She has published several articles on spirituality, chaplaincy, and spiritual care during the pandemic. She has presented several workshops and intensives at the annual APC conference, for NACC and the North American Association of Christians in Social Work.

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