Stephen D. W. King

Spiritual or religious struggle in hematopoietic cell transplant survivors.

This study describes the prevalence of religious or spiritual (R/S) struggle in long‐term survivors after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), demographic and medical correlates of R/S struggle, and its associations with depression and quality of life.

Facing Fears and Counting Blessings: A Case Study of a Chaplain's Faithful Companioning a Cancer Patient

This article offers a case study of a long-term chaplaincy care relationship between a woman with recurrent leukemia and an experienced oncology chaplain at a comprehensive cancer center. The case includes an extensive description of the encounters between the patient and the chaplain; a spiritual/religious assessment that includes a spiritual/religious profile and a portrait of the needs, interventions, and outcomes within the case; and a discussion of some key issues in the case, including what aspects regarding the overall care was healing. Although a number of issues were addressed, the author argues that the essence of the care and healing occurred through the faithful companioning of the chaplain. The author articulates an understanding of faithful companioning.

Touched by an Angel: A Chaplain's Response to the Case Study's Key Interventions, Styles, and Themes/Outcomes

This article is a response by a long-term oncology chaplain to a case by another oncology chaplain. The author notes interventions key to the relationship and outcomes, highlights differences in chaplaincy styles, and summarizes significant outcomes that are common in oncology chaplaincy. The purpose of the response is to further demonstrate how chaplains think about and engage patients/families in chaplaincy care as well as to stimulate the reflective process of the readers of the case study.

International Study of Chaplains’ Attitudes About Research

An online survey was conducted by twelve professional chaplain organizations to assess chaplains’ attitudes about and involvement in research. A total of 2,092 chaplains from 23 countries responded to the survey. Over 80% thought research was definitely important and nearly 70% thought chaplains should definitely be research literate. Just over 40% said they regularly read research articles and almost 60% said they occasionally did. The respondents rated their own research literacy as 6.5 on a 0–10 scale. Significant positive inter-correlations were found among all four measures: importance of (a) research and (b) research literacy; (c) frequency of reading articles; and (d) research literacy rating. Approximately 35% were never involved, 37% had been involved, 17% were currently involved, and 11% expected to be involved in research. The last three groups were significantly more likely to think research and research literacy were important and to read research articles than chaplains who were never involved in research. Given chaplains’ interest in research, actions should be undertaken to facilitate further research engagement.

Examining the Validity of the Rush Protocol to Screen for Religious/Spiritual Struggle

Effective deployment of limited spiritual care resources requires valid and reliable methods of screening that can be used by nonchaplain health care professionals to identify and refer patients with potential religious/spiritual (R/S) need. Research regarding the validity of existing approaches to R/S screening is limited. In a sample of 1,399 hematopoietic stem cell transplant survivors, we tested the validity of the Rush Protocol and two alternative versions of it. The negative religious coping subscale of the Brief RCOPE provided the reference standard. Based on the Protocol, 21.9% of the survivors were identified as having potential R/S struggle. The sensitivity of the Protocol was low (42.1%) and the specificity was marginally acceptable (81.3%). The sensitivity and specificity of the two alternative versions were similar to those for the unmodified Protocol. Further research with the Rush Protocol, and other models, should be pursued to develop the best evidence-based approaches to R/S screening.