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Pastoral Care: Hospital Ministry Workshop for Laity and Clergy

The Hospital Ministry Workshop consists of approximately twenty hours of training, including volunteer orientations, lectures, verbatims, dramatizations, discussions and shadowing of the staff chaplains.

The ministry training sessions will be held one weekend, starting on Friday evening and continuing through Saturday. A 10-hour practicum will follow, as scheduled with Pastoral Care.

A certificate in Hospital Ministry will be presented to those who successfully complete the workshop and practicum requirements.

After completion of the practicum, those who wish to minister as a volunteer chaplain will be selected through an interview process.

A covenant for ministry must be signed which will include a number of obligations:

• A commitment to serve as a volunteer chaplain for at least six months.
• A minimum of four hours ministry per week, preferably two or more days per week.
• Participation in Volunteer Chaplain continuing education offered by the hospital.
• A willingness to minister to patients who are in need, and the ability to visit the patients assigned by the nursing staff or staff chaplains.
• Respect the right to privacy and maintain confidentiality of information regarding staff, patients, and their friends and family members.
• Avoid involvement with staff, patients and their friends and family members in controversial issues of policies, politics, philosophies and religion.

Adventist Midwest Health/Midwest Region offers this unique opportunity to become part of the Volunteer Chaplain program, under the direction and supervision of the Pastoral Care Department. Workshops are offered bi-annually. There is no charge for the program. Attendance at all sessions of the workshop is required.