How hospital chaplains develop and use rituals to address medical staff distress

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21257896
AutoresRobert Klitzman (0000-0002-6827-8063, Columbia University, autor correspondente), Jay Al-Hashimi (Columbia University), Gabrielle Di Sapia Natarelli (Columbia University), Elizaveta Garbuzova (Columbia University), Stephanie Sinnappan (0000-0001-6793-9555, Columbia University)
Ano2022
Volume2
Páginas100087
Data de publicação2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSSM - Qualitative Research in Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2667-3215 • E-ISSN: 2667-3215
EditoraElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100087
PMID35966632
OpenAlexW4224138827
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas28

Physicians and nurses face high levels of moral distress and burnout, exacerbated by the COVID-19, yet are often busy, without time for extended interventions. Hospital chaplains have recently been asked to assist staff, but many questions arise concerning whether they do so, and if so, how and when, and whether they may vary in doing so. Thirty-one telephone interviews of ∼1 h each were conducted with 21 board-certified chaplains to examine these and related issues. Respondents reported how they help staff, often creating, on their own, innovative kinds of practices that appear to take the form of rituals. These rituals vary in audience (physicians, nurses and/or other staff, with or without patients or families), form (from open-ended to structured), formality (from formal to informal), timing (at hospital discharge, time of death or after death), duration (from a few minutes to longer), frequency (from once to several times or ongoing), content (expressing and/or reframing feelings and experiences), and activities (e.g., talking, eating and/or making commemorative objects). Such rituals can help staff cope with death, grief, and other stresses. Challenges arise, including hospital leaders' wariness, resistance or lack of support, and staff time constraints, making briefer sessions more practical. These data highlight how chaplains can assist staff through use of rituals, and learn from innovations/initiatives devised by colleagues elsewhere. Chaplains can thus enhance what they do as individuals and as a profession. These data have critical implications for future research, education and practice for physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, chaplains and others

Burnout · Cognitive reframing · Distress · Feeling · Formality · Grief · Medical education · Psychiatry · Psychological intervention · Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units · Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology