The Spiritual Care Association SCA) was founded in 2016 by HealthCare Chaplaincy Network (HCCN) as an international, multidisciplinary membership organization to strengthen and unify the spiritual care field.

SCA arose out of years of research and discussion – it is the culmination of HCCN’s many decades of experience and the insights of daily providers, researchers, and thought leaders across the U.S. and beyond.

SCA engages chaplains, nurses, social workers, doctors, and others – including clergy and like-minded organizations – in a common purpose: to create a workforce committed to providing evidence-based spiritual care for people of all backgrounds and beliefs.

SCA looks at the ground-level needs of providers, patients, and their loved ones to fill gaps in training and services.

It holds education and preparedness as fundamental necessities for chaplains and continually refines its strategies to make spiritual care a guaranteed component of whole-person care.

SCA has quickly achieved extraordinary impact as a visionary leader directly addressing the challenges of our field.

SCA developed the first research-based Quality Indicators and Scope of Practice in spiritual care, ensuring that the performance of chaplains and other spiritual caregivers can be measured objectively.

SCA’s online Learning Center offers 28 courses in many aspects of spiritual care for chaplains, nurses, social workers, rehabilitation professionals, clergy, and others. Close to 5,000 have taken our courses, which offer actionable information to improve practice.

SCA’s certification process is the most rigorous in the field, with standardized written testing and an innovative simulated patient exam that can be scored objectively. Close to 1,000 chaplains are now SCA-certified.

SCA also offers specialty certification for chaplains in hospice and palliative care and in first response.

For chaplaincy students, SCA offers the only evidence-based curriculum for clinical pastoral education (CPE). Our teaching partner, the Institute for Clinical Pastoral Training, educates over 600 each year.

SCA has established distinct divisions that train and support chaplains working in general health care environments, in hospice and palliative care, first response, the corporate/business world, the military, and other areas.

SCA also offers a depth of resources for nursing professionals – particularly faith community nurses and other specialties where spiritual care skills are needed most, such as oncology and palliative care and hospice.

SCA’s annual Caring for the Human Spirit conference provides a popular and powerful venue where chaplains, nurses, and other professionals explore and share their experiences and the latest knowledge in our field.

SCA has created and published research-based position papers for chaplains, nurses, social workers, physicians, and others, which focus on each discipline’s role in meeting patients’ and families’ spiritual care needs.

Our international reach encompasses affiliated chaplaincy programs in 15 countries.

We now know, after decades of research, that spiritual care improves health outcomes and experience for patients and practitioners, and brings meaning and healing into people’s lives.

SCA is working to instill best practices in spiritual care and ensure that they are applied with skill and compassion in all health care settings and beyond.