Canadian supervised pastoral education--affirmations and ethical queries emerging from a two-year study

Transformational education: exploring the lasting impact of students' clinical pastoral education experiences

"Thank you for that experience and for the ways it continues to shape who I am and how I interact in all of my life." (S20). There has been limited research validating Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) as a learning approach to date, however, the anecdotal evidence supporting the transformative value of CPE is abundant, as demonstrated by this student response. This quality improvement project engages a thematic cross-sectional analysis of 34 students' self-evaluative responses reporting the lasting impact of their CPE training. From the survey responses a thematic map was developed highlighting six themes of lasting impact: Spirituality, Psychotherapy, Agency, Self-Inter, Self-Intra, and Story/Narrative. These six themes overlap and intersect to provide a point of what we call "SPE alchemy"-the perfect conditions for lasting impact and transformation.

But What Are We Trying to Prove?

Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in the health care setting can and should approach their ministries more scientifically, primarily by incorporating the methods and results of quantitative and qualitative research. Such an approach, however, should have a carefully considered rationale. Proponents of a scientific approach should avoid associating their advocacy with dubious notions of health care "reform." They should attend to the perceptions--and fears--that chaplains may have of "science" and research as these affect pastoral care. In particular, fears for professional and programmatic survival should be recognized for their potential to predispose chaplains either favorably or unfavorably toward a scientific approach. Ultimately, chaplains should increase their openness to scientific methods in order to learn more about their ministry and improve their practice, without expecting that the adoption of research methods will be a magical solution to the problems posed by the current environment.