How Do Healthcare Executives Understand and Make Decisions about Spiritual Care Provision?

Abstract

Objectives: This pilot study explores how healthcare leaders understand spiritual care and how that understanding informs staffing and resource decisions.

Methods: This study is based on interviews with 11 healthcare leaders, representing 18 hospitals in 9 systems, conducted between August 2019 and February 2020.

Results: Leaders see the value of chaplains in terms of their work supporting staff in tragic situations and during organizational change. They aim to continue to maintain chaplaincy efforts in the midst of challenging economic realities.

Conclusions: Chaplains' interactions with staff alongside patient outcomes are a contributing factor in how resources decisions are made about spiritual care.