Integrating Spiritual Care in Healthcare
Join us for a discussion of our project Mainstreaming Spiritual Care in Healthcare Organizations, including our new working paper! The project, and this paper, discusses how healthcare executives can maximize their utilization of spiritual care providers to enhance workforce wellbeing, patient experience, and access to care.
We thank John Templeton Foundation for its support of this work and Transforming Chaplaincy for supporting this event.
Please register here.
We’ll be joined by:
Marilyn J. D. Barnes MS, MA, MPH, BCC is the Chair for the Department of Patient Counseling in the College of Health Professions at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the Director of the Spiritual Care Department at VCU Health System. She has presented at numerous conferences and her publications include the seminal chaplaincy research, “What do I do? Developing a taxonomy of chaplaincy activities and interventions for spiritual care in intensive care unit palliative care,” (BMC Palliative Care, 2015) which developed a normative language for chaplains and is currently being incorporated into chaplaincy practice in a variety of settings in the US and around the world, “Symbols of Comfort for a Journey of Grief,” (Illness Crisis and Loss, 2014) an article focused on the use of ritual during the initial grieving process, and “Spiritual Care Encounter – Journeying with a Grief Stricken Family” (Simulation in Health: Journal of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, 2017). In 2022 she was a guest editor for the Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy’s special issue which focused on the experiences and impact of chaplains of color. She is a Board Certified Chaplain through the Association of Professional Chaplains.
Laura McClelland, PhD is an Associate Professor and PhD Program Director in the Department of Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has expertise in the areas of health administration, organizational behavior, leadership, and organization theory. Her research interests include—workplace compassion, employee well-being, and patient experience. Her research is published in leading health services and social science journals including Health Services Research, Medical Care, and Human Resource Management Review and cited in popular press outlets such as CNN and Kaiser Health News.
Dr. Kelsey White is an Assistant Professor and Chaplaincy Faculty Researcher for the Department of Patient Counseling in the College of Health Professions, Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her PhD in Public Health Sciences, concentration in Health Management and Systems Sciences, as well as a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation Sciences from the University of Louisville. Her research primarily focuses on the integration of chaplains within healthcare delivery systems and their impact on healthcare access and quality. She includes research areas such as the social determinants of health, cross-organizational collaboration, and population health among her favorites. Beyond health services research, She is a board-certified chaplain and member of the Association of Professional Chaplains.
