Preliminary Report from the Spiritual Care (SC) Informal Opinion Survey

The "Spiritual Care as an Authentic Profession" informal opinion survey compares qualities of SC with 19 characteristics of a profession. The first 50 respondents, nearly all of whom are from within SC, have fully agreed that SC meets the professional requirement of intelligence and reflectiveness to make judgments and exercise discretion in moving from the familiar to what is different (100%). They have also fully agreed that SC training appropriately emphasizes experiential learning (100%). Those first 50 respondents agreed least often: that SC practitioners follow practices progressively refined and validated through systematic, cooperative verification procedures (12%), and that SC is typically regulated by statute (13%).

Where 100% represents full professional authenticity, they agreed in three broad categories as follows: Practitioners 83%, Accountability 65%, and Knowledge 55%.

Final results will become the basis for a strategy toward performance improvement that will both help patients/clients and assure the continuing presence of SC on the multidisciplinary team. If you did not complete the survey attached to the April e-Newsletter, save the attached survey Word document to a file, insert Xs for Agree or Disagree, and then forward as an e-mail attachment to mariejohn50@att.net. Thanks for your participation and your moral support.

Report on the Status of the Ideal Intervention Project Knowledge Base

Fr. Henry Heffernan, SJ, has been collecting, editing and "anonymizing" your Ideal Intervention Papers and Ideal Intervention Forms (Practitioners) since 2006. The total number of case studies is now approximately 90. While the Project continues to seek funding to employ a database designer/manager who will organize these case studies by central issue identifier, they can be accessed at a temporary internet location for study and possible application in a current situation. See the Q & A section below for directions to that location.

Q & A

Q: Can you give me something to work with in my daily practice right now? A: Yes. Access IIP case studies for insights toward your own case work at www.acperesearch.net and click on "Special Section: Ideal Intervention Paper (IIP) Project." Then click on "Sample IIPs."

To-Do List

CPE Supervisors, don’t forget to remind your students to forward (after review in individual supervision) their Ideal Intervention Papers or Ideal Intervention Forms as Word document attachments to Fr. Henry Heffernan, SJ, at hheffernan@gonzaga.org for processing into the growing IIP knowledge base. Have students give you a copy of the cover e-mail message as documentation.

Chaplains, pastoral counselors and other SC practitioners, please forward your completed Ideal Intervention Forms (Practitioners) in like manner. Obtain forms from the e-mail address below.

Again, everyone who has not yet submitted a completed opinion survey should do so soon by downloading the attached document, saving it to a Word file, placing Xs in Agree or Disagree, and then forwarding as an e-mail attachment to the Editor at the address below. Your opinion is very important.

Please contact the Editor at mariejohn50@att.net with your requests, questions and comments.