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Hospital chaplain skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical hospital chaplain skills. We ranked the top skills for hospital chaplains based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 30.0% of hospital chaplain resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a hospital chaplain needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 hospital chaplain skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how hospital chaplains use patients:

Facilitated and coordinated Catholic spiritual care volunteers for support of patients and their families.
Educated patients and families in stress management and facilitated comforting end-of-life conversations.

2. Clinical Pastoral

Chaplain or Clinical Pastoral must have the spiritual knowledge and deep understanding of the faith, bible, or religious book that serves as their reference for their teaching and theology.

Here's how hospital chaplains use clinical pastoral:

Received four accredited units of Clinical Pastoral
Participate in Clinical Pastoral Education.

3. Pastoral Care

Here's how hospital chaplains use pastoral care:

Assisted in supervising seminarians in hospital pastoral care clinical training program.
Provided age specific pastoral care and counseling assessments.

4. Spiritual Care

Spiritual care is a facet of healthcare that deals with the spiritual and religious needs caused by an injury or illness.

Here's how hospital chaplains use spiritual care:

Managed spiritual care requests to department and planned referrals to and from chaplain colleagues and interdisciplinary hospital staff.
Represented the spiritual care department by writing and presenting invocations at hospital events.

5. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how hospital chaplains use patient care:

Participate in general, patient caregiver and physician orientation.
Trained to use Hospital's electronic patient charting program called Epic which unites all disciplines providing more efficient patient care.

6. Crisis Intervention

Here's how hospital chaplains use crisis intervention:

Maintained on-call responsibilities every other weekend for crisis intervention at the hospital.
Provided crisis intervention and worked closely with Midwest Transplant Network.

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7. Ministry

The ministry іѕ a gоvеrnmеnt dераrtmеnt hеаdеd bу a minister whісh deals with a ѕресіfіс cause оr area of activity. Frоm the religious point оf vіеw, the mіnіѕtrу іѕ an activity саrrіеd оut by one or mоrе bеlіеvеrѕ оf a rеlіgіоn tо еxрrеѕѕ or spread thеіr faith.

Here's how hospital chaplains use ministry:

Provided Emergency Medical Ministry to Level II Community Hospital.
Provide crisis ministry support to include pastoral counseling, grief counseling and death notification.

8. CPE

CPE is a supervised interfaith professional education for ministry imparted by a small group of experiential personnel. It is not a professional certification, rather it helps prepare for chaplaincy. It aims at providing a knowledge base and developing skills, for pastoral ministry. One can explore gifts and motivations for ministry during their education at CPE.

Here's how hospital chaplains use cpe:

Earned 4 units of CPE.
Completed additional CPE units at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke Medical Center to meet national standard for certification.

9. Compassion

Here's how hospital chaplains use compassion:

Demonstrate compassion through exploratory listening and pastoral response.
Demonstrate compassion for each individual.

10. Emotional Support

At its core, emotional support involves providing support, reassurance, acceptance, love, and encouragement. It is especially important in a time of stress/sadness as it stabilizes an individual and provides a positive foundation for trust. Honing this skill is important for individuals who want to pursue the career of caregivers and emotional support nurses. Their job includes monitoring mental health and helping patients to handle any mental challenge.

Here's how hospital chaplains use emotional support:

Provided spiritual and emotional support to families facing trauma situations.
Provided spiritual and emotional support to children and their families in regional children's hospital.

11. Spiritual Assessments

Here's how hospital chaplains use spiritual assessments:

Charted spiritual assessments, and attended family consultations with hospice team.
Performed spiritual assessments and on-call rotations; participated on Interdisciplinary Care Teams; and planned/administered worship services, baptisms and sacraments.

12. ACPE

Here's how hospital chaplains use acpe:

Edited CPE manual for ACPE Center Accreditation process; authored Pastoral Integration Project on Staff Prayer Support.
Earned four units of accredited ACPE units in Level I and Level II.

13. Memorial Services

Here's how hospital chaplains use memorial services:

Led memorial services, support groups, and debriefings for grieving staff, family and friends.
Engaged in on-campus and off-campus Memorial services, special celebrations, and civic programs.

14. Acute Care

The branch of secondary healthcare which is responsible for giving short-term care to patients recovering from severe injuries or urgent medical problems is known as acute care. Acute care comprises multiple domains like; emergency care, urgent care, short-term stabilization, pre-hospital care, critical care, and trauma care.

Here's how hospital chaplains use acute care:

Worked with area nursing homes, long term acute care hospitals, rehab units, home health and medical equipment providers.

15. Religious Services

Here's how hospital chaplains use religious services:

Assisted and organized religious services.
Provided prayer, religious services, bereavement support, blessings, baptisms, memorial and funeral services.

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List of hospital chaplain skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a hospital chaplain resume and required skills for a hospital chaplain to have include:

Patients
Clinical Pastoral
Pastoral Care
Spiritual Care
Patient Care
Crisis Intervention
Ministry
CPE
Compassion
Emotional Support
Spiritual Assessments
ACPE
Memorial Services

Acute Care
Religious Services
End-of-Life Care
Spiritual Support
Memorial Hospital
Oncology
Emergency Room
Worship Services
Staff Support
Mental Health
Patient Satisfaction
Crisis Situations
Emotional Care

Pastoral Support
Life Support
Baptist
Living Wills
Community Education
Spiritual Guidance
Epic
Chapel Services
Funeral Services
Emergency Calls
Crisis Calls

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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