HealthCare Chaplaincy introduces Practical Bearings:
The Critical Bibliography Series for Health Care Chaplains –
A New and Useful Resource

“The Management of Care: Literature on Leadership and Organizational Development,” Issue 5 of the series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website: www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings. Author The Rev. Dr. Martin Montonye, Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at HealthCare Chaplaincy, seeks both to inform and to stimulate dialogue within the pastoral care community: “A great deal has been written on the subject of leadership, but definitions and explanations vary widely.” With a reader feedback tool linked to the paper, he encourages reader’s responses as to what they believe are some of the strengths and challenges pastoral professionals face as leaders. He asks, “In light of the unique preparation and role of pastoral professionals, is there a distinct developmental process you must engage in to move from the bedside to the boardroom?” Practical Bearings offers thorough and current resources for pastoral educators and pastoral practitioners through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and HealthCare Chaplaincy.

Issue 4 of the series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website: http://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings/   In “Discerning Patient Needs: Spiritual Assessment Perspectives for Health Care Chaplains,” P. Scott Richards, Ph.D.,  Professor,Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Department of Education, Brigham Young University, provides an annotated bibliography of key texts on religious-spiritual assessment strategies and methods. Richards proposes that “chaplains can fulfill a crucial role in health care settings by making sure that patients’ spiritual beliefs and needs are carefully assessed and fully understood.” “Practical Bearings” offers the most thorough and current resources for pastoral educators and pastoral practitioners through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and HealthCare Chaplaincy

Issue 3 of the series Practical Bearings: The Critical Bibliography for Health Care Chaplains is now online at HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website: http://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings/   In “Meeting the Other: Interreligious Encounters in the Provision and Supervision of Spiritual Care,” Rev. Dagmar Grefe, Ph. D., Manager, Spiritual Care and Education, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, provides an annotated commentary and key texts that address interreligious spiritual care.  The literature listed in this series represents three avenues---theological, social-psychological, and spiritual care---to the understanding of what is going on when persons meet the religiously other at the bedside or in supervision.  “Practical Bearings” offers the most thorough and current resources for pastoral educators and pastoral practitioners through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation and HealthCare Chaplaincy.

For more information, please contact:

Rev. Dr. Leonard M. Hummel
Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg
61 Seminary Ridge
Gettysburg, PA   17325
email: lhummel@ltsg.edu       
Office Phone: 717-338-3000, ext. 2157

New York, NY – February 11, 2009 – HealthCare Chaplaincy, with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, introduces Practical Bearings at http://www.healthcarechaplaincy.org/practicalbearings/, a series of bibliographies and critical reviews of the important books, articles and other publications on the theory and practice of pastoral care.

“Practical Bearings will point professional chaplains to resources that will help them fulfill their mission in the evolving and complex world of health care,” says Rev. Dr. Leonard Hummel, editor-in-chief and director of supervised clinical ministry at Gettysburg Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He is a visiting scholar at HealthCare Chaplaincy.

HealthCare Chaplaincy plans at least six issues, each on a single topic. Each issue will contain:

1. The rationale behind the key role that the topic plays in the profession of pastoral care
2. A list of the three to five publications on that topic that are either most essential or most representative with a summary and comments on each
3. Other publications of value

Practical Bearings will publish a new issue at the beginning of each month.

Among the issue topics will be:

1. By Its Fruits: The Science of Health Care Chaplaincy
2. Ministry Amidst Chance, Necessity, Love: Cancer and Health Care Chaplaincy
3. The Management of Care: Literature on Leadership and Organizational Development
4. The Comfort of Strangers: Trends in the History and Current Practice of Health Care
5. To Want to Learn: Educational Theory for Supervision and Training

The series name Practical Bearings derives from the Pragmatic Maxim of the great philosophers Charles Sanders Peirce and William James who contended that all important ideas have consequences for life and living—that is, “practical bearings.”

“A basic premise underlying this series is that pastoral care in health care can, and should, and needs to make increasingly predictable and evidence based contributions to the holistic care of those who are suffering, and their care givers,” says Rev. George Handzo, BCC,  author of the first issue “By Its Fruits: The Science of Health Care Chaplaincy.” He is vice president for pastoral care leadership and practice at HealthCare Chaplaincy.

About HealthCare Chaplaincy:

HealthCare Chaplaincy is a progressive New York City-based nonprofit healthcare organization committed to advancing the profession of pastoral care. Building on nearly a half century of measurable achievements, the Chaplaincy is an acknowledged industry leader, both nationally and internationally, in multifaith pastoral care research, education, clinical practice, and consulting.   We partner with many leading academic medical centers, regional healthcare institutions, and community hospitals to provide patients, their loved ones, and staff with professional spirit-centered care and supportive counseling that promote integration and health.

CONTACT: 

Jim Siegel
Director of Marketing and Communications
HealthCare Chaplaincy
jsiegel@healthcarechaplaincy.org 
Office: 212-644-1111 x141  
Cell 917-723-8537