Home-based Palliative Care Chaplain - Physician Practice

Home-based Palliative Care Chaplain - Physician Practice

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Our team members are the heart of what makes us better. At Hackensack Meridian Health we help our patients live better, healthier lives — and we help one another to succeed. With a culture rooted in connection and collaboration, our employees are team members. Here, competitive benefits are just the beginning. It’s also about how we support one another and how we show up for our community.

Together, we keep getting better—advancing our mission to transform healthcare and serve as a leader of positive change.

The Chaplain provides compassionate pastoral ministry to all patients, their family, loved ones, and team members. The Chaplain supports patients and their families in times of crisis, anxiety, or sorrow in grief and suffering. The Chaplain facilitates communication with caregivers outside the healthcare team; serves as a subject matter expert in pastoral care matters and collaborates with community clergy to provide ongoing spiritual support.

The Chaplain maintains a working knowledge of customs and practices from a diversity of world religions and faith practices and works to assure that patients and family members are respected in their individual beliefs, customs, traditions and practices.

This is a high travel position seeing patients within the community‑central region—mainly Middlesex, but not strictly defined—and is home‑based.

• Supports spiritual and emotional needs based on initial and ongoing spiritual assessments and documents actions taken and plan of care in the patient's medical record.
• Develops patient spiritual care plans and collaborates with the care team by notating them in the patient's chart. Conducts in‑services for medical team members on issues relating to assessing and meeting spiritual care needs.
• Acts as a liaison between family and clinical team during crisis by supporting and comforting family members.
• Provides intensive and extensive pastoral care and spiritual counseling to patients, families and team members during and after critical events.
• Collaborates with Palliative Care Team and attends palliative care team meetings to provide optimal care and support during each phase of the patient’s end‑of‑life process.
• Conducts patient rounds to assess and support spiritual needs of patients and collaborates with the care team on patient care planning.
• Visits patients and families who request pastoral care services.
• Participates in family conferences to support the patient, family, physicians and team members.
• Coordinates the use of local clergy and ministers from various faiths and denominations when appropriate.
• Provides the theological framework to ensure spiritual care can be delivered through the coordinated efforts of the volunteer clergy network.
• Collaborates with volunteer service leaders on screening and training pastoral care volunteers.
• Participates in committee meetings to offer expertise, guidance and education in pastoral care matters concerning religion, culture and theology.
• Initiates or leads team in emotional reflection at interdisciplinary team meetings.
• Provides liturgical/sacramental ministry of prayer, communion, emergency baptisms, memorial services, hospital celebrations, ceremonies and services.
• Proactively coordinates and leads didactics or educational training relating to pastoral care for all patient care teams.
• Uses one's own religious heritage, theological understanding, and knowledge of the behavioral sciences in pastoral ministry to persons and groups.
• Follows the highest standards of ethical conduct as outlined by the Association of Clinical Pastoral Educators.
• Maintains medical records, reports and data as necessary for regulatory reporting and continuous quality improvement.
• May be required to work weekends or as needed and carry a beeper or similar communication device.
• Identifies the needs of the patient population served and modifies and delivers care that is specific to those needs (e.g., age, culture, language, hearing and/or visually impaired).
• Adhere…