Adventist Health

Chaplains fill a unique professional role in the healthcare setting, especially at Adventist Health, where our mission is founded on the teachings of Jesus and is a contemporary expression of His healing ministry. Chaplains bear the torch of hope for patients and loved ones in their darkest and scariest times and offer a place for connection and care for a whole person—body, mind, and spirit.

“Traditional hospital chaplaincy was done by people who had some spiritual background,” said Leo Zakhariya, a clinical pastoral education supervisor for Adventist Health. “These caregivers were retired ministers, elders, deacons, or laypeople who believed in God, and they would come and pray with patients, read the Bible, sing, and support them.”

Today, chaplains do much more than provide religious rites, ceremonies, prayers, and wisdom. They are specially trained to bring together clinical considerations and pastoral conversations as part of the clinical care team. All chaplains at Adventist Health are required to complete rigorous Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) training.

“The mindset behind Clinical Pastoral Education is to develop a clinical identity alongside a pastoral identity,” Zakhariya said. “As a clinical chaplain, you analyze each interaction with patients until you develop a clinical mindset focused on best outcomes. This is what makes the difference between traditional chaplaincy and clinically informed chaplaincy.”

CPE encompasses competencies that include ethics, psychology and sociology, understanding and articulating research, facilitating family and group interactions following trauma, managing crises, and more. Each CPE unit involves 400 hours of classwork plus work in a clinical setting. CPE certification—which is required of all full-time chaplains within two years of being employed with Adventist Health—requires four units of CPE and 2,000 hours of clinical work.

Sandraneta Hall, a chaplain for Adventist Health, says the CPE program transformed how she relates to herself and then focused on improving how she connects with others.

“I love the mission of our hospital—living God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness, and hope—and CPE helped me to better fulfill that mission by developing the skill sets I need to connect with people very quickly,” Sandraneta said.

“I’m willing to take people wherever they come from,” said Sandraneta. “I’m here to be with them and walk beside them as they’re going through their challenges and their joys. My job is to love, and CPE has taught me— and is continuing to teach me—how to love in a way that I understand God loves me and wants me to love other people. He’s expanding my heart through this process. It is transformative.”

____________________ By Kirsten Cutler

Spiritual care for patients and family members provided by compassionate and highly trained chaplains is a vital component of whole-person care at Adventist Health.