Pastoral Care and Clinical Pastoral Education : About

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History

Our Clinical Pastoral Education Residency Program provides clergy and trained laypeople with professional education for ministry in the hospital setting. This program helps to prepare clergy and trained laypeople for certification as a professional chaplain. From the 1940s up until the 1970s, pastoral care consisted of volunteers and local clergy. In 1980, an ACPE-certified supervisor finally took Ochsner through the accreditation process and Ochsner became an accredited ACPE center. After two years with the new recognition, the supervisor was hired by Southern Baptist Hospital and Ochsner lost its accreditation due to a lack of a supervisor.

In the 1980s, pastoral care reverted back to volunteers. Then in the late 1990s, Ochsner Pastoral Care was revived; it became a hospital of placement for the McFarland Institute. The first resident placed here was a supervisor in training, Rev. Jennie Thomas. In 1999, Ochsner hired her to be the first full-time professional chaplain in almost 20 years. She has developed our Pastoral Care program from one chaplain to a team of 12 professional chaplains. With the advent of our residency program, that number will only grow. In the meantime, we continued to offer single units of Clinical Pastoral Education with the McFarland Institute’s support. In 2008, Ochsner Pastoral Care received a matching grant from Baptist Community Ministries to help fund the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Chaplain Residency Program. Ochsner is in process of becoming a satellite CPE center of the McFarland Institute as the first step in the process of becoming our own CPE center again.

Patient Promise

Chaplains help patients, families, and staff members draw upon their spiritual resources to help cope with illness and other issues. Our vision is:

  • To provide excellent spiritual support to patients, families, staff and visitors in the healing process of the mind, body and spirit.
  • To be an ethical voice in the treatment of patients.
  • When healing does not take a physical form, to guide patients, families and staff in the process of dying well.
  • To honor all faith traditions within the institution.
  • To be a leader in educating clergy regarding pastoral care.

Services

Three different support groups are offered by the Ochsner Medical Center Pastoral Care Department.
They are as follows:

Jefferson Highway
1514 Jefferson Highway, New Orleans, LA 70121

Little Footprints - Resolve through Sharing Grief Support Group:

This group will meet monthly   on the 1st Tuesday of the month) from 7-8 pm to offer support to family, friends and loved ones who have lost a child. It will meet in the Ochsner Medical Center Pastoral Care Conference room on the 1st floor of Ochsner Medical Center on Jefferson Hwy. This will be an open group allowing for members in the community who have lost a child to participate. For more information, please call 504-842-4777.

Ochsner Grief Support Group:

This group is to meet weekly from 4-5 pm on Monday afternoons to offer support to anyone in the community in need of grief support after the loss of a loved one. It will meet in the pastoral care conference room on the first floor of the hospital next to the chapel in Ochsner Medical Center on Jefferson Hwy. This group is open to those who have lost a loved one at Ochsner Medical Center as well as those with grief support needs in the community. The third Thursday of each month will be co-led by the Bereavement Care Coordinator of St. Catherine's Hospice.

All groups will provide a safe-therapeutic environment where the participants may share their difficulties and learn new and creative ways to work through the grief of their loss. All support groups will be facilitated by a graduate level grief support professional.

WestBank
2500 Belle Chasse Highway, Gretna, LA  70056
For reservations call: 504-391-8819

This group is to meet monthly on the 3rd Tuesday of each month from 6:00pm -7:00pm in the Plaquemine Room to offer support to anyone in the community in need of grief support after the loss of a loved one. This group is open to those who have lost a loved one at Ochsner Medical Center, WestBank  as well as those with grief support needs in the community.

All groups will provide a safe-therapeutic environment where the participants may share their difficulties and learn new and creative ways to work through the grief of their loss. All support groups will be facilitated by a graduate level grief support professional.

Clinical Pastoral Education Chaplain Residency Program

Ochsner will be offering a full-time, three-unit CPE chaplain residency program starting September of each year through September the following year. We will have at least five chaplain residents. There will be two residents placed at Ochsner’s Jefferson Highway Campus, one resident at Ochsner  Kenner, one resident at Ochsner NorthShore and one resident at Ochsner West Bank. The successful applicant will have completed at least one unit of clinical pastoral education; a Bachelor degree; a Master of Divinity or equivalent; and ordination or commission to function in ministry. Chaplain residents interested in a second year program are also welcome to apply. Please complete the standard  ACPE application and the FERPA form. For more information, please contact Rev. Jennie Thomas, Associate Supervisor, ACPE at 1514 Jefferson Highway, New Orleans, LA 70121 or at 504-842-3286. We begin accepting applications January 1 through April 30 of each year.

What is Clinical Pastoral Education?

Clinical Pastoral Education is interfaith professional education for the ministry. It brings theological students and ministers of all faiths (pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and others) into supervised encounters with persons in crisis. Out of an intense involvement with persons in need, and the feedback from peers and teachers, students develop a new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister. From theological reflection on specific human situations, they also gain a new understanding of ministry. Within the interdisciplinary team process of helping persons, they further develop skills in interpersonal and inter-professional relationships.

What do the essential elements of CPE include?

  • The actual practice of ministry to persons.
  • Detailed reporting and evaluation of that practice.
  • Pastoral supervision.
  • A process conception of learning.
  • A theoretical perspective on all elements of the program.
  • A small group of peers in a common learning experience.
  • A specific time period.
  • An individual contract for learning consistent with the objectives of CPE.
  • The CPE program must be conducted under the auspices of an ACPE certified supervisor (faculty) attached to an ACPE accredited CPE center.

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