HealthCare Chaplaincy Network™ (HCCN), founded in 1961, is a global health care nonprofit organization that offers spiritual care-related information and resources, and professional chaplaincy services in hospitals, other health care settings, and online. Its mission is to advance the integration of spiritual care in health care through clinical practice, research and education in order to improve patient experience and satisfaction and to help people faced with illness and grief find comfort and meaning – whoever they are, whatever they believe, wherever they are.
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Professional Board Certified Chaplains:
- Are the spiritual care specialists on the health care team as doctors and nurses focus on caring for the body, and as the recognition grows that whole-person care encompasses spirit, mind, and body.
- Serve those who are ill, family and friend caregivers, and other health care professionals who deal every day with the stress of illness and loss.
- Are trained to help people to identify and draw upon their sources of spiritual strength – regardless of religion or beliefs. As one very experienced professional chaplain says, “In our encounters with people in distress, we walk into some dark places and help bring in light.”
Overview of HCCN
- We have served 8.5 million people
- We support patients, their loved once, and caregivers regardless of who they are or what they believe
- We provide chaplaincy care at a number of major hospitals including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and NYU Langone Medical Center
- We've trained more than 1600 students from 80 different countries since 2003
- We are a leader in the research of the importance of spiritual care in health care
The Wall Street Journal
December 8, 2013 — “In a health crisis, patients and families may turn to a member of the hospital staff who offers help beyond the physical aspects of medical treatment: the chaplain. (There is a) growing recognition of the role of spirituality in health care.”
View Videos About HealthCare Chaplaincy Network and Caring for the Human Spirit:
How we are creating the new world of spiritual care
Oncologist James L. Speyer, M.D., Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, discusses how to deliver whole-person care for patients with cancer.
The Rev. Gregory L. Johnson, Senior Advisor for Family Caregiving, Office of the CEO, EmblemHealth, discusses the importance of caring for the family caregiver.
Francis “Ken” Duane, CEO of Heritage Brands and North America Wholesale at PVH Corporation, one of the world’s largest apparel companies, tells how HCCN’s professional health care chaplains have helped him and others heal.
T. Michael Long, past Board Chairman of HealthCare Chaplaincy Network, talks about the importance of professional spiritual and chaplaincy care in providing excellent health care and HCCN’s contributions to the field.
Clinical Services
HCCN provides professional chaplaincy clinical services in leading health care institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, Hospital for Special Surgery and St. Mary’s Center.
HCCN publishes Caring for the Human Spirit® magazine twice a year, with articles of interest to chaplains, nurses, social workers and other health care disciplines. The print version is available by free subscription, and it is posted online.
A Research Leader
HCCN has long been a leader in advancing research on the integration of spiritual care within health care.
HCCN holds an annual Caring for the Human Spirit® conference, focusing on the integration of spiritual care in health care. This go-to conference features top experts and draws an international audience of chaplains, researchers, nurses, social workers and other disciplines. The first Caring for the Human Spirit® conference (March 31-April 3, 2014) released the largest body of research on spiritual care in health care, presented the first empirical data on the role and effectiveness of chaplaincy care interventions, and launched the new field of interdisciplinary research in spiritual care in health care that would drive the research agenda for years to come.
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