Abstract

These diverse case studies make a compelling case for the importance of effective spiritual care in healthcare and provide unprecedented insight into the essential role of the chaplain within the healthcare team. Presented alongside critical reflections and responses from professionals within chaplaincy, psychology, psychiatry and nursing, they provide an honest and detailed look into how healthcare chaplains actually work with the people in their care and reveal the vital role of narrative and imagination in effective transformative practice.

From a 16-year-old with a belief that God would enable a miraculous recovery from paralysis, to an African man with a history of psychosis and depression whose cultural belief in witches complicated his treatment, to a dying Jewish man, aggressive and isolated due to his traumatic life experiences, each case includes insight into the patient's needs and chaplain's perspectives, discussion of spiritual assessments and spiritual care interventions, and accounts of significant encounters and dialogues.

The nine paediatric, psychiatric and palliative case studies and reflections in this ground-breaking book will enable chaplains to critically reflect on the spiritual care they provide and communicate their work more effectively, help healthcare professionals develop a clearer understanding of the care chaplains deliver, and provide an informed perspective for those who develop policy around spiritual care and need to make the case for chaplaincy services.

This book is intended to be a learning piece and a conversation starter for the chaplaincy profession but it is also of interest to all those interested in the provision of spiritual care in a health care setting. Chaplains often work in small departments isolated from the support and supervision afforded to other healthcare professionals; books such as this can provide a valuable learning experience and enable chaplains to reflect on their own practice and how they might have handled the situations described in the case studies.
Emily Wood
Health and Social Care Chaplaincy, Issue 4.1 (June) 2016
Fitchett and Nolan, along with the writers of these cases, have provided us with a long-missing resource essential to the further integration of spiritual care and professional chaplaincy into healthcare. These cases should become fundamental to every chaplain's training and every interdisciplinary team's discussion about spiritual care. Swinton's Afterword sets the context brilliantly and probably should be read first. Kudos all around!
The Rev. George Handzo, BCC, Director of Health Services Research & Quality, HealthCare Chaplaincy Network

It breaks new ground in illustrating the educative role of case studies in the training and continuing education of healthcare chaplains and in demonstrating the nature and value of healthcare chaplaincy services to clinicians and healthcare payers. The external reviews of the chaplains' work with their individual patients are particularly useful, typically illustrating deficits and concerns that the participating chaplains may not otherwise have considered - relevant research is cited, emerging theoretical perspectives and theological implications considered and with good cross-referencing to other disciplines.
It provides a valuable learning resource for healthcare chaplains to employ in reflecting on their own practice and to consider how they themselves might have handled the cases described.
...I can certainly recommend this book as important reading for all healthcare chaplains and to those clinical and managerial colleagues who wish to increase their understanding of the modern healthcare chaplain's role.

Andrew Miles MSc MPhil PhD DSc
European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare
This ground-breaking book will enable healthcare chaplains to critically reflect on the care they provide and communicate their work more effectively. It will be a valuable tool for educating new chaplains, for continuing education for experienced chaplains, and for students of practical theology, as well as for others working in healthcare.
Harold G. Koenig, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Associate Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina