2014 Conference Highlights
- Largest Body of Research in Spiritual Care in Health Care Released at First Global Conference
- First Empirical Data on Role and Effectiveness of Chaplaincy Care Interventions
- New Field of Interdisciplinary Research in Spiritual Care in Health Care Launched
The consensus of the 325 health care professionals who attended in person or Webcast HealthCare Chaplaincy Network’s recent conference Caring for the Human Spirit®: Driving the Spiritual Agenda in Spiritual Care in Health Care was that better patient care will be the long-term outcome of the research findings and proceedings.
The conference held March 31-April 3, 2014 at New York Academy of Medicine culminated a three year long research and education effort funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Conference participants were from throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, India, Ireland, Canada, Kenya and Namibia.
Announced at the conference were the results of six research studies on the role of chaplaincy care interventions in the treatment of diverse patient groups including an ICU, pediatric inpatients, inpatients at the end of life, outpatients with advanced cancer, and a diverse urban population.
Research teams led by an MD or PHD researcher and a board certified chaplain were from Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston), Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC), Children’s Mercy Hospital (Kansas City), Emory University (Atlanta), University of California/San Francisco, and Advocate Health Care (Chicago).
