Healthcare and the hospital chaplain

Many chaplains and most chaplaincy programs in the United States--with encouragement from their accrediting organization, the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE)--have begun to assume a more proactive stance toward patients, healthcare professionals, and healthcare facilities. Some chaplains and chaplaincy programs have begun to engage in activities that have ranged from initiating conversations with and perusing the medical records of patients who have not requested their services to proposing that they be permitted to do "spiritual assessments" on patients--in some instances whether these patients have been explicitly informed and have agreed to this beforehand. Moreover, many chaplains and chaplaincy programs have begun to assume…