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The ACPE Research Network seeks to foster connections among members of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education interested in research, encourage original research, and raise awareness about published research (e.g., in the health care literature and the education literature) related to spirituality, pastoral care, and Clinical Pastoral Education.

  GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS (updated November 30, 2008):

RECENT:

• The December Article-of-the-Month will be posted by the 10th. The November Article-of-the-Month presents a study of "Mystical experience in the context of health care." The October AoM looks at the effects of a spiritual meditation (compared to secular meditations and relaxation) on pain and issues of migraineurs. Also note: The September AoM presents an overview of the neurobiology of spirituality, and the August 2008 AoM looks at the effect of guided imagery and music intervention on spirituality and anxiety in a cardiac population, using Colleen Delaney's "Spirituality Scale."
   
  
• Note the new section of the site, for the latest information about the Ideal Intervention Paper (IIP) Project being led by Dr. John Gleason and Fr. Henry Heffernan. Sample IIPs by CPE students in a variety of programs are now available.
   
  
• The Fall 2008 Newsletter includes a letter from ACPE President Bill Scrivener, news of a supervisor's plans to study the ACPE certification process, an update on presentations of the Ideal Intervention Paper (IIP) project at national conferences, a link to the proceedings of the First Annual Meeting of the Society for Spirituality, Theology, and Health, and a review of new theoretical models for spirituality by Gowri Anandarajah and of a 3-factor model for analysis of the FACIT-Sp.
   
  
• Internet links often change, and one of the challenges of maintaining a site like ours is to keep all of the links on our many pages updated. As of 9/26/08, all links on this site were confirmed to be fully operational.
   
  
• The Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy is soliciting original research papers and literature reviews on topics of interest to chaplaincy. Full-length reports and brief reports of research may be submitted. All manuscripts should be in APA style and will be peer-reviewed. Please send manuscripts to KFlannelly@healthcarechaplaincy.org. For more on the journal, see the Fall 2008 Newsletter (§7).
   
  
• The Southern Medical Association's online resource for Spirituality & Medicine is again available --go to www.sma.org/spirituality. This fine resource had been briefly unavailable for several months this spring, after the conclusion of the grant for the SMA's Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project (--as was noted in our Spring-Summer 2008 Newsletter) Our Network is listed on the site under the "Resources" section.
   
  
• New article citations are regularly added to the Items of Related Interest sections of the Articles-of-the-Month pages. Recently, new citations have been added to the pages for: January 2008 (re: Sense Making in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis and Chronic Disease), March 2007 (re: Nurses as Spiritual Care Providers), November 2006 (re: Spirituality in the PICU), December 2005 (re: Spirituality and Pain), May 2006 (re: Research into Near-Death Experiences), October 2005 (re: Physician Perspectives and Characteristics Regarding Religion/Spirituality), October 2004 (re: Spirituality and Patient Satisfaction), March 2004 (re: the Spiritual Well-Being Scale), June 2003 (re: Muslim Patient Issues), and September 2002 (re: Definition and Use of the Term Spirituality). An article (by Powell, et al.) has also been added to the May 2005 page (re: How Spirituality May Be Affected by Trauma) with links to both an on-line "exercise" version of the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory via the American Psychological Association's Help Center at http://locator.apa.org/ptgi and a print version via http://www.apapractice.org/apo/public/resilience/presentation/ptgi.html#. Chaplains may be interested in this instrument, two items of which apply to the domain of spiritual change: "I have a better understanding of spiritual matters" and "I have a stronger religious faith."

 
CONTINUING:

• Network members are invited to participate in the University of Pennsylvania Survey of Spiritual Experiences [opens in a new window], conducted by Andrew Newberg, MD, et al. For more on Dr. Newberg, see our Spring 2006 Newsletter (§6).
   
  
• The Spirituality and Health columns in the Oklahoma Health Center News (originally noted in the our Spring 2006 Newsletter, §3), written by Ken Blank and John Campbell of the Oklahoma Health Center Clinical Pastoral Education Institute, are now available on the Institute's web site (www.cpeokc.org --see the Read Columns from the OHC News section).
   
  
• Bibliographies of Medline-indexed articles on spirituality and health (noted in the Fall 2005, Spring 2006, and Spring-Summer 2007 Newsletters) are available as PDFs at www.uphs.upenn.edu/pastoral/resed/bibindex.html.

 
   
 

If you are a first-time visitor, please also note:

CPE Supervisors: please introduce your students to our web site, and see that they are aware of the annual Research Network awards.

This web site became operational on September 1, 2002. It will continue to evolve in response to suggestions from Network members. To submit suggestions, please directly e-mail the Network's convener at john.ehman@uphs.upenn.edu. All member correspondence is confirmed by return e-mail.

For the web site of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, click here.