Healthcare chaplains’ conflicting and ambivalent positions regarding meaning in life and worldview

Abstract

Western society is increasingly a spiritual society, but not so much a society that draws on clearly delineated religious or worldview pillars anymore. Within healthcare, there’s a growing attention to the spiritual dimension of health and the collaborative spiritual care that is needed for person-centered care. This changing religious/worldview and healthcare landscape is influencing healthcare chaplaincy. In this case study in-depth interviews were conducted with a chaplaincy team within a large healthcare organization in The Netherlands. Dialogical Self Theory was used as the theoretical framework in the narrative analysis of these stories. This provided insights into how these chaplains negotiate their professional identity within a changing healthcare landscape. It is concluded that there are multiple and often contradictory and conflicting positions within and between chaplains and that it is a challenge for healthcare chaplains to integrate the “old” and “new” representations of chaplaincy.