Hospital Ministry

The contributors include twelve staff chaplains of the Division of Pastoral Care, Luthernan General Hospital, Park Ridge, Illinois, in addition to a church historian, an ethicist, a research psychologists, and an expert on substance abuse. Book jacket.

Examine a meaningful, integrated, systemic, and pragmatic view of hospital ministry! A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry: Healing Ways is a comprehensive resource that examines the roles and responsibilities of hospital chaplains. It will help you make a shift toward a knowledge- and skill-based ministry that both incorporates and goes beyond current training approaches. In the words of author McCall, “In today’s healthcare and specialized ministry services, education and training must be progressive and thorough. It must include experiences that increase one’s expertise in working with individuals, groups, families, consumers, and systems. These services must be integrated into the total structure and resources of hospitals at all levels of mission, philosophy, and program. Furthermore . . . hospital ministry must strive to be a resource to the wider community and the church.” A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry is a vital resource for those who want to integrate hospital ministry into organizations whose support and understanding of the discipline are weak or do not exist at all. A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry provides numerous resources that can be of immediate use to anyone engaged in hospital ministry, including: job descriptions descriptions of various types of hospital ministries scope-of-practice statements sample pastoral care brochures and request forms orientation checklists sample religious preference codes a list of typical counseling problems therapeutic referral and progress forms For administrators, educators, and those seeking to provide spiritual and pastoral resources to hospitalized individuals and their families, A Practical Guide to Hospital Ministry will prove to be an invaluable reference work.

Evaluating the success of hospital chaplaincy has been a difficult task, but finally an effective approach has been developed. Ministry of Hospital Chaplains: Patient Satisfaction presents the Patient Satisfaction Instrument for Pastoral Care (PSI) which measures the quality and character of spiritual care and can contribute to the establishment of professional norms. To find out whether specific changes in pastoral practices lead to increased satisfaction among patients, this test can be used periodically. As you will see, this allows managers and department heads to identify and monitor specific functions and areas in which improvement is needed. Ministry of Hospital Chaplains will help you analyze the background variables that are associated with patient satisfaction, the styles of pastoral care that are linked to better hospital outcomes, and the usefulness of different pastoral activities. In the end, you will be able to use empirical evidence to demonstrate to hospital administrators that patients appreciate pastoral care and that chaplains are helping patients recuperate, experience an easier time at the hospital, and get home more quickly. Besides discussing how to evaluate the effectiveness of chaplains, this insightful book explores: enacting continuous improvement efforts pastoral care characteristics that predict a patient’s readiness to return home how attention to details can build protocols that respond to patients questionnaire responses from 2,000 discharged hospital patients in the U.S. and Canada why the need to evaluate the benefits of pastoral care exists the aspects of pastoral care most important to patients Chaplains in general and those in psychiatric hospitals, hospital administrators, managed care directors, and seminary professors of pastoral care will be glad to know that a technique for evaluating pastoral services has finally arrived. The guessing game is over. Now, you will know what your patients think of the services your hospital offers, and you can measure alternative approaches to pastoral care delivery when discontent is registered.

A Guide to Worship Ministry centers on four main areas of worship ministry: preparing for worship ministry, leading the worship ministry, preparing for Sunday, and discipling the generations through worship ministry. The book addresses topics such as discerning your call to ministry, working on a church staff, planning and leading worship services, and equipping your worship teams. A Guide to Worship Ministry looks at the day-to-day work of the worship minister, offering insights and personal stories. It is an important book for those getting started in worship ministry and a refresher for those who have years of experience in ministry.

Governing Health Systems: For Nations and Communities Around the World examines the complex relationships between governance and performance in community and national health systems. Each chapter provides an in-depth case study, using both qualitative and quantitative methods, on health systems in many countries, including Uganda, Ghana, India, Zambia, Japan, Nigeria, Indonesia, Brazil, Palestine, and South Korea. The chapters were written by former Takemi Fellows, who were mid-career research fellows at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and their colleagues. This case study approach yields important findings as well as contextual insights about the challenges and accomplishments in addressing governance issues in national and community health systems around the world. Health policymakers around the world are struggling to address the multiple challenges of governing health systems. These challenges also represent important themes for the research mission of the Takemi Program in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This book is based on the program’s thirtieth anniversary symposium held in October 2013 at Harvard. The studies presented in this book—deep examinations of illustrative examples of health system governance for communities and nations—contribute to our knowledge about global health and assist policymakers in dealing with the complex practical problems of health systems. In short, this book addresses central questions about governing health systems—and why governance matters.

Rev. ed. of: Abingdon hospital visitation manual. c1988.