Topical issues of the legal regulation of medical chaplaincy in Ukraine

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of topical issues of legal regulation of the institute of medical chaplaincy in Ukraine. It is stated that at the current stage of state development, the specifics of pastoral care in healthcare are not properly regulated by law and need to be clearly established, in particular not only in the Constitution of Ukraine, the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Laws of Ukraine “Fundamentals of the Legislation of Ukraine on Health Care” and “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, but also by specialized law. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the legal status of the chaplain in healthcare in accordance with the Order of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine № 138 “On approval of changes to the Handbook of qualification characteristics of professional workers. Issue 78 “Health Care”. It was determined that there is a legal gap regarding the provision of the activity of a medical chaplain in Medical Centers, which are not health care institutions, but carry out their activities as individual entrepreneurs registered in the manner prescribed by law having obtained a license for the right to conduct economic activity in medical practice.In addition, the need for legal regulation of the rules for the preparation of the work documentation of the chaplain in health care, the development of instructions and the approval of the forms of such documentation was identified. Furthermore, the need to create a mechanism for passing the specialization “Clinical Pastoral Care” and obtaining a chaplain’s certificate in health care was established.Taking the identified deficiencies of regulation of the legal status of the medical chaplain into account, it was established that the institute of medical chaplaincy needs to be established in specialized law. The expediency of developing the Law of Ukraine “On chaplaincy in the sphere of health care” is explained in detail from the point of view of compliance with the requirements of the law-making technique and the peculiarities of legal relations related to the activity of chaplaincy in health care.It is concluded that the establishment of legal norms in the Law of Ukraine “On chaplaincy in the sphere of health care” will make it possible to regulate fully the institution of medical chaplaincy, defining the peculiarities of the organization and the main principles of the activity of medical chaplaincy.