Reflections on Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE)

By: Marge Vander Wagen  
 
The eleven week Clinical Pastoral Education experience was exactly what it was labeled: intense.  We were in class or working on our units 5 week days and one or two shifts per weekend. This system was to provide us with experience to gain pastoral formation, competence and reflection.  Our work on the unit included providing pastoral care to patients, relatives and visitors and filling out many forms. Pastoral care includes starting a relationship, listening to the patient, asking questions to allow the patient to reveal their feelings, encourage the patient by being attentive and praying. The protocol at Christ Medical Center is to always ask first:  “May I come in? Would you like me to pray?, Can you tell me about your situation?”  The many forms that needed to be filled out and signed included advanced directives (Health Care Power of Attorney, Limited Emergency Treatment (LET) ), Expiration notices and Release of body forms.  

The didactic training included lectures, presentations from a variety of different personnel, reviews of conversations we had with patients (verbatims), theological reflections on patient conversations, evaluations of progress toward learning goals and IPR: Interpersonal Relations.  The IPR was a conversation between the supervisor and the intern to discuss personal past events that may inhibit or aid the chaplain intern to develop good pastoral skills.  

A typical day would start with morning report which would review chaplain reports from 4 pm the day before until 8 am of the given day. Any patient needing special care was noted and new room assignments were announced.  Each chaplain worked with a census sheet that was printed for their specific unit. After morning report the interns would either return to their base room for a didactic or clinical seminar or go their units to visit patients and fill out forms. After a lunch break there would be another didactic session or more visits to the units.  At the end of the day all interns would log onto the computer to fill out an activity sheet with patients visited, forms filled out, baptisms, blessings given or number of persons anointed.

My first visit was unsuccessful for both the patient who was in respiratory distress and for myself. I said a brief prayer and quickly left her alone.  After 10 weeks of training and experience, I confidently approached a patient known to be depressed, mad at the world and uncommunicative. When he spoke to me for 45 minutes about his feelings and situation, I felt that CPE was well worth it.