Chaplain care for health care colleagues: a scoping review

Abstract

In addition to supporting patients and their loved ones at critical times, chaplains have long understood that caring for their health care colleagues is an important part of their practice. The Covid-19 pandemic prompted conversations among chaplains about how best to address the stress they were observing in health care workers. Our team conducted a scoping review in PubMed and CINAHL of peer reviewed literature describing chaplaincy care for health care workers. We started with 364 unique articles and found 59 that met criteria for the review. Five themes surfaced in analysis of these articles, with two themes emerging as most important: (1) descriptions of care for staff as part of the chaplain's role, especially when staff are making difficult decisions and (2) reports of the effects of chaplain care for staff, both indirect and direct. We discovered that research was limited, and more research is needed regarding chaplain care for health care colleagues.

Keywords: Chaplain care; burnout; health care worker support; resilience; stress; well-being.