Night Chaplain Service Opportunities
Spiritual Care
Our Night Chaplain Program is an in-house night ministry program providing spiritual and emotional care throughout the hospital. Sponsored by the UnityPoint Health – Meriter Department of Spiritual Care, the program is an interfaith ministry incorporating a wide variety of emotional and spiritual resources to meet the needs of hospitalized patients and their families.
How The Program Benefits You
- Sharpens your ministry skills to hospitalized persons in crisis.
- Offers you the opportunity to expand your understanding of the deeper emotional and spiritual issues within life's major crisis and transition times.
- Increases your sensitivity to the needs of the sick, injured, dying and elderly as well as healing resources available.
- Allows you to provide care as part of a multi-disciplinary team of professionals.
- Offers you the opportunity to meet other spiritual caregivers, and consult with them and Meriter's certified ACPE educators.
- Allows you to give health care staff a greater awareness of emotional needs, and promote usage of spiritual resources.
- Provides you the opportunity to enhance the relationship between Meriter and your spiritual community.
- Diverse caregiver education opportunities.
Services Provided to You
- A sleep room and meals while on duty.
- An honorarium for each night served.
Requirements
- Completion of one unit (minimum) of Clinical Pastoral Education.
- Completion of an application form, screening interview and acceptance into the program.
- Completion of an orientation to the Night Chaplain Program.
- Commitment to serve one night per month as night chaplain (between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m.) for one year.
- A basic knowledge of and comfort level with providing emotional and spiritual care in a health care setting. Chaplains must also be open to diversity of faith and culture.
- A commitment to attend regularly scheduled monthly meetings that focus on education, spiritual skill development, team building and support.