FAQ

In Spring 2018, St Camillus Center for Spiritual Care became an Accredited Clinical Pastoral Education Program by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. (ACPE), an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education

ACPE, Inc.
1 Concourse Pkwy
Suite 800
Atlanta, GA 30328

404.320.1472
website

ACPE requires students to complete 100 educational and 300 clinical hours of practical ministry to earn (1) unit of credit. Clinical hours can be completed at a variety of clinical sites including a person’s own work site under the supervision of a “site coordinator.” This can be another hospital, hospice, jail, homeless mission, or congregational ministry.

Student’s ministry hours must be documented and verified by a third party at the clinical site. This person will be held accountable for insuring student has completed the required practical ministry hours as required by the ACPE Standards.

In addition, students establish a learning covenant in consultation with their supervisor to help focus their learning for the unit; write verbatim case studies of those they serve as a means of improving their spiritual care-giving skills; participate in a group learning experience; complete reading assignments; and receive didactic material through media and presentations.

The UIC CPE program is designed to help students gain experience and expertise in the following areas:

Pastoral Reflection: Reflecting on yourself as a person and minister in relation to people in crisis, your supervisor, and your peers, as well as the CPE curriculum and the site where you will be serving.

Pastoral Formation: Focusing on your personal and pastoral identity issues in learning and ministry.

Pastoral Competence: Deepening and unfolding your competence in functioning as a spiritual caregiver including skill development and knowledge of faith traditions and the behavioral sciences.

Pastoral Specialization: Focusing on your desire to become competent and knowledgeable in a particular area of clinical service, e.g., oncology, hospice care, skilled nursing, AIDS care, cardiology, rehabilitation, psychiatry, homelessness, war veterans, etc.

Each student is required to serve 72 hours of in-house on-call chaplain duties where they will respond to all crisis calls, including Emergency Department, Intensive Care units, death and code scenarios and provide spiritual care as needed, unless the situation requires them to call a staff chaplain or consultant due to the unique needs of the patient or family involved. These 72 hours will be counted as part of the total 300 clinical hours requirement and negotiated with the clinical administrator at each student’s placement site.

Depending on a student’s expressed learning goals and the resources available at their chosen pastoral practice (clinical site), an appropriate assignment to a particular population or context will be negotiated. A clinical site may require from a student the following:

• To complete their information sheet
• Sign their code of conduct and site manual
• Provide them a letter of endorsement from a religious body stating they are in good standing.
• Documentation of a completed criminal background check and updated fingerprinting.
• A TB and blood test for rubella, current within the last six months.
• TB x-ray, current within the past year.
  Site coordinator or Office Manager will oversee the completion of these requirements.