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Self-Guided General Spiritual Care for Chaplaincy Courses

Hours

30

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

What Every Health Care Professional Needs to Know About Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course, is for those of all health care disciplines, settings, and roles who desire to know more about being a spiritual care generalist within their scope of practice. The course will provide an overview of spirituality and religion, the benefits of spiritual care, spiritual distress, spiritual screening, and spiritual conversations as well as core skills that can improve the interventions that generalists provide. In addition, the benefits of specialist level spiritual care and team collaboration will also be explored.

Hours

35

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Foundations of Hospice Chaplaincy

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course, Foundations of Hospice Chaplaincy is designed for those interested in the specialized work as a chaplain within a hospice team. Its purpose is to empower learners with the basic skills and knowledge needed in order to provide care to persons and families who are admitted to hospice as well as to contribute effectively as a member of the hospice interdisciplinary team.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Powerful Communication Techniques

Author

Brian Hughes BCC

Course Description

Chaplains and other health care professionals as well as spiritual care providers need demonstrated proficiency in various aspects of communication. This course will review listening skills and methods, effective verbal and non-verbal practices, group communication, conflict resolution, negotiation, and goal clarification.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

More than Listening: Counseling Skills

Author

Denise Hess BCC

Course Description

Participants will learn the differences between pastoral and secular counseling, short-term counseling processes appropriate in health care settings, working with traumatic events, family systems, and grief and bereavement.

Hours

20

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

What We Hear and Say: Spiritual Assessment and Documentation

Author

Brent Peery BCC

Course Description

Spiritual assessment and document is central to the work of health care chaplains and all committed to the integration of spirituality into whole person health care. This course focuses on understanding the rationale, goals, and process of assessment and documentation in order to contribute effectively by identifying and incorporating patient and family beliefs, values, needs, and practices into the interdisciplinary approach to care.

Hours

35

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Values, Obligations, and Rights: Health Care Ethics

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course identifies the ethical and moral challenges that occur in health care and the importance of understanding patient and family beliefs, values, cultures and preferences in resolving any conflicts. The role and contribution of the chaplain and other spiritual care providers in direct care and ethics committees will also be addressed.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Care for All: Cultural Competence, Inclusion, and Vulnerable Populations

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

Cultural competence includes self-awareness and the professional ability to assess, document, and provide interventions so that persons' beliefs, values, and practices are integrated into their plan of care. This course will also address the needs of vulnerable patient populations including persons who are non-resident aliens, LGBTQ, homeless, incarcerated, low health literate, and mentally challenged.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

When Care Is Tough: Supporting the Interdisciplinary Team

Author

Brian Hughes BCC

Course Description

Chaplains and other spiritual care providers are often called upon to provide emotional and spiritual support to members of the interdisciplinary team, especially in times of crisis and stress. This course will provide information, practices, and resources on topics including compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, burnout, one-on-one and small group work and the appropriate use of ritual.

Hours

35

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Caring for the Smallest: Pediatrics

Author

David Pascoe, MA, BCC

Course Description

Working with pediatric patients requires unique skills in understanding children's emotional and spiritual development, reaction to illness and injury, and the child's experience of the health care setting and treatment. This module provides information on providing age-appropriate care around these topics, including providing support and care to parents, and the unique challenges of end of life care for pediatric patients.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Far Too Soon: The Anguish of Perinatal Loss

Author

Joanne Cacciatore, Ph.D

Course Description

Perinatal death is one of the most profound emotional, cognitive, psychological, spiritual, and physiological losses a mother, father, and family can suffer. This module provides an overview of the epidemiology of perinatal death, the trauma of the experience, spiritual and psychological issues, and ways in which chaplains and others committed to spirituality in health care can assist the family in their grief through ritual and other interventions.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

The Challenges of Memory: Alzheimer's and Other Dementias

Author

Doug McNair, M.D., Ph.D.

Course Description

This course will assist learners in understanding and applying concepts about dementia to their care of patients with Alzheimer's disease and other conditions in which cognition, memory, and expression are impaired. It will provide information on how chaplains and spiritual care providers can mentor and support patients and work collaboratively with families and other members of the health care team.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Living with Heartbreak: Grief, Loss, and Bereavement

Author

Kenneth J. Doka, Ph.D.

Course Description

This module describes the process of grief, offers current theories that have relevance to assisting grieving individuals, and identifies sensitivities, skills, and tools to assist the learner in understanding particular factors in various types of loss. Also explored will be the concept of disenfranchised grief, which is a reminder that the experience of grief encompasses far more than the death of a family member or loved one

Hours

35

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

When It's Time to say Goodbye – Introduction to Spiritual Care at the End of Life

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

Community religious, spiritual, and existential leaders provide care to persons within their communities at all stages of life, including that of terminal illness, the process of dying, and death itself. This module addresses the various aspects of end of life care will be presented and discussed, including the dying process and physiological changes, advance care planning, conflicts that may occur between dying persons and families, palliative care, and hospice. Issues of emotional and spiritual, religious, and existential distress will be identified as well as appropriate interventions, cultural, religious, spiritual and existential practices, and care of the family.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Delivery and Continuity of Care for Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This module, Delivery and Continuity of Care for Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care will guide the learner through an overview of health care delivery and continuity of care with information, activities, and resources to increase understanding of the United States system. It will also encourage the learner to consider how chaplaincy and spiritual care is, is not, or can be delivered and continued throughout a person’s experience and health care journey. Learners will be provided with opportunities to articulate their new knowledge and consider practical ways to integrate it into their scope of practice, provision of care, best practices, and protocols as well as for consideration for quality improvement and research projects.

Hours

25

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

What We Do Matters: Continuous Quality Improvement within Chaplaincy and Health Care

Author

The Rev. George Handzo, BCC, CSSBB

Course Description

This module, What We Do Matters: Continuous Quality Improvement within Chaplaincy and Health Care, is designed to enable learners to be a full participant in CQI processes and to establish and sustain a CQI program for a chaplaincy or spiritual care service using Lean and Six Sigma. Participants will learn the basic language in order to recognize CQI’s underlying assumptions, language, and processes. The module will teach assumptions and language that is pretty much universal to all CQI systems and the language particular to Lean Six Sigma which is the most widely used system. Participants will learn how to set up and run simple Lean or Six Sigma projects and be able to avoid the most common mistakes in this process. Examples from hospital practice will be provided.

Hours

20

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

What to do with Information: HIPAA Compliance

Author

Lerrill White, M.S., M.Div., BCC, ACPE Supervisor

Course Description

In 1996, the United States Congress passed The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA). This federal law was originally intended to establish three desired outcomes: a uniform standard for processing electronic healthcare claims and records across the United States; standards to protect the security of patient information; and privacy rules that all Healthcare Providers, Covered Entities, and Business Associates must follow. It is one of the most asked about and misunderstood issues in health care. This course, What to do with Information: HIPAA Compliance, gives a history of HIPAA, focuses on its implications of HIPAA for the health care industry, healthcare chaplains and spiritual care providers, and patients

Hours

20

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Talking about What Matters: Advanced Directives and Planning

Author

Kevin Massey, MDiv., BCC

Course Description

Advance care planning and the completion of health care directives are an important element of a patient's plan of care, and many chaplains and spiritual care providers are involved within their setting in assisting in ACP completion and/or advocating for a person's wishes regarding their care. This module will address the characteristics of advance directives with special emphasis on best practices in having conversations with patients, families, and the other members of the health care team.

Hours

30

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Building and Maintaining a Chaplaincy Department

Author

The Rev. George Handzo, BCC, CSSBB

Course Description

Building and maintaining a chaplaincy department is the core responsibility of chaplain directors, managers, and other leaders. This module addresses the basics involved to develop a department, whether as a new director or one who wishes to ensure that the department enhances the work of chaplaincy, contributes to the organization, and meets regulatory guidelines. Through a step-by-step process this module, Building and Maintaining a Chaplaincy Department, provides the student with resources and samples of the details to be addressed, including planning and implementation.

Hours

30

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Major Religious Traditions and Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course provides an overview of the five major religious traditions: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism as well as the growing population that refers to themselves as “nones” or “spiritual but not religious.” Emphasis is placed upon the beliefs, values, and practices that impact a person’s reaction to illness, trauma, end-of-life, and other issues of spiritual distress.

Looking for resources to train your spiritual care volunteers? Click here to learn more.

Please note: No printed materials are mailed. All the materials will be provided electronically through SCA's Learning Management System (LMS)

Self-Guided Palliative Care Courses

 

Hours

30

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Fundamentals of Spiritual Care in Palliative Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course is for chaplains, nurses, social workers, physicians and others on the interdisciplinary health care team who wish to improve their delivery of spiritual care in health care.

The course strengthens the quality of palliative care by providing a foundation of knowledge and practice built on the applicable areas of the National Consensus Project's Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care and the National Quality Forum's National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality.

Hours

25

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Advanced Practice Spiritual Care in Palliative Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course explores specific topics in an in-depth manner that requires participants to engage in deeper critical thinking which can be articulated into advanced practice, enhancing professional practice and leadership in the provision of spiritual care as an integral component of palliative care.

The course is for health care professionals who have completed a Fundamentals course who want to build upon that knowledge base and continue to develop their skills to improve patient outcomes, board certified chaplains wishing to enhance preparation for a specialty palliative certification from a certifying organization, and Chaplaincy/pastoral care department directors who desire to build upon the expertise and contributions of the palliative care team

Self-Guided Courses for First Responder Chaplain Courses

Hours

35

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Crisis, Trauma, and First Response Certificate Course for Chaplains

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

The Rev. William R. Greaver

The Rev. Marcos A. Miranda

Course Description

The Crisis, Trauma, and First Response Certificate Course for Chaplains provides the basic and fundamental skills and knowledge needed in order to provide chaplaincy spiritual care to those people who have been impacted by an emergency, crisis, trauma, or disaster. Not all chaplains working in first response settings are board certified or credentialed. As a result, there has been a vast difference in skills and knowledge across those working in this capacity. First response organizations have called for a more uniform knowledge base of those chaplains who do not hold board certification or credentialing. This course and the resulting certificate fills that gap.

Self-Guided Courses for Nurses

Spiritual Care Association Nursing Division is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Provider #P0623.

 

Hours

25

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Empowering Rehabilitation Professionals to Integrate Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

Rehabilitation is a process that assists a person to achieve the greatest possible level of physical, mental, spiritual, social, and economic functioning. This course, Empowering Rehabilitation Professionals to Integrate Spiritual Care, is for rehabilitation clinicians from all health care disciplines, settings, and roles who desire to learn more about being a spiritual care generalist within their scope of practice. The course will provide an overview of spirituality and religion; and the benefits of spiritual care, spiritual distress, spiritual screening, and spiritual conversations, as well as describe the core skills needed to improve the interventions that generalists provide. In addition, it will explore the role of professional chaplains as specialists in spiritual care and the importance of team collaboration. The course provides 25 hours of CEUs.

Hours

12

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Spirituality and Aging Course for Nurses and Social Workers

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

The Spirituality and Aging for Nurses and Social Workers course focuses on understanding and meeting the spiritual care needs of patients who are 65 or older as they experience the aging process. The course provides evidence-based knowledge, interventions, and application to empower nurses and social workers to integrate spiritual care skills in their daily patient care, regardless of a patient’s religion, spirituality, existential beliefs, or lack of stated beliefs.

Hours

12

Course

Self-Guided

Title

What Every Health Care Professional Needs to Know About Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course, is for those of all health care disciplines, settings, and roles who desire to know more about being a spiritual care generalist within their scope of practice. The course will provide an overview of spirituality and religion, the benefits of spiritual care, spiritual distress, spiritual screening, and spiritual conversations as well as core skills that can improve the interventions that generalists provide. In addition, the benefits of specialist level spiritual care and team collaboration will also be explored.

Hours

27.7

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Cultural Competence, Inclusion, and Vulnerable Populations for Health Care Professionals

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

All health care professionals encounter diversity when caring for patients and their families. This course is designed for providers from all disciplines. This course will address cultural competence, including self-awareness and effective ways to assess, document, and provide interventions so that persons' beliefs, values, and practices are integrated into their plan of care. It also discusses the needs of vulnerable patient populations including persons who are non-resident aliens, LGBTQ, homeless, incarcerated, low health literate, and mentally challenged.

Hours

23.6

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Grief, Loss, and Bereavement for Health Care Professionals

Author

Kenneth J. Doka, Ph.D.

Course Description

This module provides health care professionals from all disciplines information on the process of grief, offers current theories that have relevance to assisting grieving individuals, and identifies sensitivities, skills, and tools to assist the learner in understanding particular factors in various types of loss. Also explored will be the concept of disenfranchised grief, which is a reminder that the experience of grief encompasses far more than the death of a family member or loved one.

Hours

23.6

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Counseling Skills for Health Care Professionals

Author

Denise Hess, BCC

Course Description

Health care professionals from all disciplines often find themselves in situations with patients and families when counseling skills are necessary. This course describes the differences between spiritually-based and secular counseling, short-term counseling processes appropriate in health care settings, working with traumatic events, family systems, and grief and bereavement.

Hours

20

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Effective Communication Techniques for Health Care Professionals

Author

Brian Hughes, BCC

Course Description

All health care professionals and providers need demonstrated proficiency in various aspects of communication. This course will review listening skills and methods, effective verbal and non-verbal practices, group communication, conflict resolution, negotiation, and goal clarification in order to provide the learner with effective tools for their daily use.

Looking for resources to train your spiritual care volunteers? Click here to learn more.

Self-Guided Courses for Social Workers

These activities are pending approval from the National Association of Social Workers.

 

Hours

25

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Empowering Rehabilitation Professionals to Integrate Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

Rehabilitation is a process that assists a person to achieve the greatest possible level of physical, mental, spiritual, social, and economic functioning. This course, Empowering Rehabilitation Professionals to Integrate Spiritual Care, is for rehabilitation clinicians from all health care disciplines, settings, and roles who desire to learn more about being a spiritual care generalist within their scope of practice. The course will provide an overview of spirituality and religion; and the benefits of spiritual care, spiritual distress, spiritual screening, and spiritual conversations, as well as describe the core skills needed to improve the interventions that generalists provide. In addition, it will explore the role of professional chaplains as specialists in spiritual care and the importance of team collaboration. The course provides 25 hours of CEUs.

Hours

12

Course

Self-Guided

Title

Spirituality and Aging Course for Nurses and Social Workers

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

The Spirituality and Aging for Nurses and Social Workers course focuses on understanding and meeting the spiritual care needs of patients who are 65 or older as they experience the aging process. The course provides evidence-based knowledge, interventions, and application to empower nurses and social workers to integrate spiritual care skills in their daily patient care, regardless of a patient’s religion, spirituality, existential beliefs, or lack of stated beliefs.

Hours

12

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

What Every Health Care Professional Needs to Know About Spiritual Care

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course, is for those of all health care disciplines, settings, and roles who desire to know more about being a spiritual care generalist within their scope of practice. The course will provide an overview of spirituality and religion, the benefits of spiritual care, spiritual distress, spiritual screening, and spiritual conversations as well as core skills that can improve the interventions that generalists provide. In addition, the benefits of specialist level spiritual care and team collaboration will also be explored.

Hours

TBA

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Care For All: Cultural Competence, Inclusion, Vulnerable Populations

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

All health care professionals encounter diversity when caring for patients and their families. This course is designed for providers from all disciplines. This course will address cultural competence, including self-awareness and effective ways to assess, document, and provide interventions so that persons' beliefs, values, and practices are integrated into their plan of care. It also discusses the needs of vulnerable patient populations including persons who are non-resident aliens, LGBTQ, homeless, incarcerated, low health literate, and mentally challenged.

Hours

TBA

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

Values, Obligations, and Rights: Health Care Ethics

Author

Sue Wintz, M.Div. APBCC, BCC

Course Description

This course, is designed to introduce the concepts of biomedical ethics and assist the foundational level chaplain in understanding and applying those concepts to daily professional practice. It includes information on how diverse beliefs and values due to cultural, religious, spiritual, and/or existential beliefs may impact a patient or family’s experience and decision-making. Chaplains are in the unique position of serving as mediators and facilitators in the interaction of and care for patients, families, and staff. This course will explore the ethical issues in health care, including the nuanced applications of ethical principles and theories in a case study example.

Hours

TBA

Course Type

Self-Guided

Title

What We Hear and Say: Spiritual Assessments & Documentations

Author

Brent Peery, DMin, BCC

Course Description

The Spiritual Care Knowledge Base training series teaches chaplains and spiritual care providers the core principles to enhance their knowledge and equip their practice. The series also provides education for those from other health care disciplines who are committed to the integration of spirituality into whole-person care. As spiritual care generalists, they will gain the knowledge and skills in order for them to work collaboratively and effectively with chaplains who are the spiritual care specialists on the health care team. These courses are also intended for person serving in geographical locations where knowledge-based training is not available, those new to their health care discipline, students in training programs, community care providers, and experienced professionals wishing to expand their knowledge of specific topics.

Description: This course, Preparation for Standardized Clinical Knowledge Test for Board Certified and Credentialed Chaplains, was primarily developed to assist persons to become prepared for the required standardized testing component of the board certification and credentialing processes of the Spiritual Care Association. Learners will be provided with the learning objectives that are at the core of the standardized test questions in order to focus their learning in areas in which they desire more study. Sample questions are provided; however, they are not actual questions from the standardized test. This course is also designed to provide information and knowledge through an overview of the topics within the Quality Indicators and Scope of Practice developed in 2016 by an international, interdisciplinary panel of experts. These two documents served as the foundation of the evidence-based standardized testing of chaplain knowledge for board certification. Additional study resources will be recommended for each of the components of the documents, not only in the text of the course but in the extensive references section at the end.

 

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course the learner will be able to:

  • Name the learning objectives used in the standardized test for board certification and chaplain credentialing.
  • Define evidence-based competency in chaplaincy practice and provide examples.
  • Describe each of the Quality Indicators and the knowledge required to demonstrate an understanding of each.
  • Distinguish the competencies identified in the Scope of Practice and articulate methods by which to integrate them into one’s professional practice.
  • Identify additional book and article resources and ways in which to locate them to increase one’s knowledge in preparation for the standardized certification exam.

 

This training was developed in part with the generous support of the Foundation for Spirituality and Medicine.

Description: This course, Chaplaincy Care Volunteer Training, is designed for persons who wish to volunteer their time to a chaplaincy department as a visitor to patients and families within health care settings. It is intended to support the training provided by individual departments, led by a chaplaincy supervisor. The course will provide the knowledge and skills that a volunteer needs in order to be effective as a valuable member of the chaplaincy care team including the role of a volunteer, spirituality and religion, cultural awareness, listening and communication skills, and working with those who are dying and/or grieving.

 

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course the learner will be able to:

  • Articulate the role of chaplaincy care volunteers in a health care setting.
  • Describe the components of a visit with patients and/or families.
  • Summarize the differences between spirituality and religion, spiritual well-being and spiritual distress.
  • Employ effective listening skills including attending, active listening, building rapport, and responding.
  • Identify issues important to the provision of culturally sensitive care.
  • Distinguish important skills to employ when visiting persons with physical health issues including visual and hearing impairments.
  • Recognize the spiritual issues that arise in dying, death, grief, and bereavement

Number of Continuing Education Hours: 18