Improving quality in pastoral care using the Pastoral Care Activity Tracker (PCAT)

A feasibility study of a digital tool within an Australian healthcare organization

Bibliographic Data

ID22310808
AuthorsSteve Calder (HammondCare, St. Leonards, NSW, Australia), Matthew Andreotta (0000-0002-2996-6031, The Dementia Centre, HammondCare, Osborne Park, WA, Australia), Thomas Morris (0000-0003-3627-6095, The Dementia Centre, HammondCare, St. Leonards, NSW, Australia), Mustafa Atee (0000-0002-0837-3245, The Dementia Centre, HammondCare, Osborne Park, WA, Australia, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume29
Issue4
Pages353-367
Publication date2023-10-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Health Care Chaplaincy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0885-4726 • E-ISSN: 1528-6916
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08854726.2022.2091837
PMID35820050
OpenAlexW4285088980
LanguageEN
References cited20

Background Activity reporting of Pastoral Care Coordinators (PCCs) is often inadequate within care settings because of suboptimal analog data collection methods. This study aims to render pastoral care activity reporting more efficient through digitizing data collection in pastoral care settings.Methods A one-year feasibility (pilot) study of a digital tool, the “Pastoral Care Activity Tracker” (PCAT) was conducted between June 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021 at HammondCare, an Australian nonprofit healthcare organization. Feasibility was measured using electronic activity logs collected by the tool and user feedback surveys by PCCs.Results Of the 43 PCCs working in the organization, 42 (97.7%) used the PCAT tool to complete the logging of 66,298 pastoral care activities (M [SD] = 1,578.5 [827.8] activities per PCC). Most activities were logged successfully (98.3%) and took less than one minute (89.5%). Survey responses (n = 20, 46.6%) indicated many PCCs found the PCAT more convenient (n = 15, 75.0%) and easier to use (n = 10, 50.0%) than paper-based method.Conclusions PCCs found the PCAT to be feasible, favorable, and easier to use for report generation compared to paper-based methods. The feasibility of the PCAT improved pastoral care activity data capture, as perceived by PCCs

Data collection · Geography · Health care · Logging · Pastoral care · Political science · Sociology · Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods · Health Policy Implementation Science · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Survey Methodology and Nonresponse

Tools

Open DOI