Chaplain–Boulder Community Health
Boulder Community Health, Boulder, CO 80303
On-Call Requirements- Must be available for 2 on-call shifts per week and once per month. On-call schedule is Saturday or Sunday, overnight.
$36.58 – $50.88 an hour – Per Diem, Nights, On-Call.
**Range includes per diem and night differential. +$2.50/hr for weekend shifts.
POSITION SUMMARY
Spiritual Care Providers are responsible for attending to the emotional and spiritual needs of patients, visitors family and all hospital staff. There may also be crisis events that require travel to a BCH clinic to provide support.
JOB QUALIFICATIONS
Education or Formal Training
1. Master of Divinity degree, Master Religious Studies, or related graduate studies equivalency strongly preferred.
2. Required two or more Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) units from the Association of Professional Chaplains (ACPE) or an equivalent training.
3. Certification by one of the following organizations: Association of Professional Chaplains, Association of Jewish Chaplains, National Association of Catholic Chaplains, Association for Clinical Pastoral Education or Spiritual Care Association is preferred.
Special Qualifications (Licensure, Registration, etc.)
1. Spiritual Care is called to be Designated Requestors and must maintain this certification with Donor Alliance on a bi-annual basis. Decedent Affairs is included as part of the role of Spiritual Care Providers.
2. Critical Incident Stress Debrief training will be provided and is mandatory for all Spiritual Care Providers.
Knowledge, Skill and Ability
1. Applicants must have broad familiarity with meaning-making and meaning-breaking processes as they relate to changes in health and well-being such that they help persons in acute distress be less anxious. This knowledge may include: Mental Health First Aid, trauma-informed care training, and/or related equivalents.
2. Caregivers are expected to approach interactions primarily with a sense of cultural humility and kindness. Common cultural competencies remain a secondary relational approach.
3. On the side of cultural competency, applicants must be familiar with a variety of common philos ophical, cultural, and religious practices such that they may be offered to care-seekers with sincerity, compassion, and proficiency.
4. On the side of cultural humility, applicants must be competent at referring ritual needs to community partners (e.g. contacting a local Elder for a Jehovah’s Witness debating interventions with blood products vs. whole blood donation) as well as suspending what one knows in order to fully inquire into the specifics of an individual’s request (i.e. simply having a patient requesting to see a Buddhist should not imply patient is Buddhist or that if they are that they want sutras recited).
5. Ability to advocate for a patient’s agency regarding their beliefs and practices (especially those relating to illness, dying, and death) within the confines of hospital policy. Advocacy may include setting up and leading Family Meetings, meeting with the care team to recommend goals-of-care explorations, consulting Ethics for recommendations when a Temporary Medical Proxy and a patient’s known wishes are potentially conflicting, triggering the “No One Dies Alone” volunteers, and more.
6. Appropriate knowledge in the areas of behavioral sciences.
7. Comfort with interreligious and intercultural approaches to emotional and spiritual care.
8. Ability to communicate effectively one-to-one and in group settings.
9. Ability to perform duties with compassion, energy, openness, and flexibility.
10. Ability to counsel and assist others by providing emotional and/or spiritual guidance for the entire spectrum of neurodiversity and gender diversity in the community.
11. Motivation and ability to offer care to those with limited ability to communicate, including consultation with non-verbal and/or non-communicative patients, ON A DAILY BASIS.
12. Comfortable working amidst illness and injury in emergency and trauma situations
13. Willingness to respect and uphold hospital policies and laws regarding confidentiality with the utmost integrity.
14. A commitment to BCH Wellness and self-care practices that encourage a culture of health across disciplines throughout the organization.
15. Commitment to demonstrate ENCORE! Values with excellence even under distress. This includes having the self-awareness to request assistance with or to take a break from work when overwhelmed. Reasonable requests will be accommodated. Your health matters too.
Experience
1. At least, one year experience providing related care. Having worked in a hospital setting is strongly preferred.
2. Palliative Care experience and knowledge of bioethics is preferred.
MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT DIRECTLY USED
Telephone, Desktop computer, Translation tablets (Ipads), Printer, Fax Machine, Copy Machine, and Pager
WORKING ENVIRONMENT/PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES
Stairs, elevators, doors, movement between BCH facilities, Car/Shuttle/Walk; some out-of-hospital community resource visiting; writing, reading, speaking, carrying, lifting, walking – in all types of weather; ability to move around the hospital in a timely manner.
INTERRELATIONSHIPS
Working cooperatively and respectfully with all disciplines both clinical and non-clinical staff.
SUPERVISORY DUTIES
New Spiritual Care Providers go through a period of shadowing and reverse-shadowing, which includes multiple members in the department coaching them through workflows as peer supports. However, the peer support may extend to pointing out complexities of protocol and intervening when unfamiliar risks arise. This is not a supervisory role, yet there are occasional professional expectations that involve supervisory duties within the Spiritual Care Department.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Under general supervision of manager of spiritual care, a spiritual care provider will offer emotional and/or spiritual support for patients, visitors, and all hospital staff through daily unit rounding, by attending to referrals, as well as self-refer to crisis events appropriately.
2. Participates in planning/discharge rounds with the interdisciplinary team on assigned units.
3. Serves as consultant to the Palliative Care Department and Trauma Department, as needed.
4. Must be able to respond to urgent requests by being bedside of patient within 30 minutes.
5. Assists patients, visitors, and staff in understanding Advance Directives and facilitates completing Medical Durable Power of Attorney documents.
6. Has authorized access to patient medical records for assessing emotional, spiritual, and related practical needs and is expected to record interventions in the chart and/or in other tracking tools such that care for the patient is enhanced.
7. Assists in contacting and offering hospitality to outside clergy visiting hospital patients. Offers organization-wide rituals when appropriate (e.g. hand blessings for Nurse’s Week, Letting Go stations at employee entrances during times of collective distress, and so on).
8. Employees are expected to comply with all regulatory requirements, including Joint Commission Standards.
9. Is familiar with organization, department and job specific Environment of Care areas, including Life Safety, Utilities Management, Hazardous Materials Communications, Emergency Preparedness, Infection Control and Medical Equipment Failure.
10. Adheres to Standard Precautions as appropriate, which may include: a. use of protective barriers, as appropriate (e.g., gloves, masks, gowns, pocket masks, and/or safety glasses); b. handling and disposing of infectious waste appropriately; c. hand washing as appropriate.
OTHER DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES
Other duties as assigned.
PATIENT CARE/INTERACTION
When applicable, employees must be able to adjust the essential functions they perform appropriately to the age of their patient/customer. Employees must demonstrate knowledge of the principles of growth and development and the knowledge and skills necessary to provide for the primary population of patients served in the department. Employees demonstrate the ability to alter care and patient/family/visitor/staff education based on the age or developmental level.
To learn more and apply, click here.
If you’d like to advertise a job opening or CPE residency, contact Michael Skaggs, Director of Programs, at info@chaplaincyinnovation.org. Openings are publicized on a per-week basis across social media, here on the Lab’s website, and the Lab’s bi-weekly newsletter. CPE residencies are publicized at a discounted rate.