Palliative Care Chaplain

11000 Central Office; United States; On-site; USD 39,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

Intermountain Health seeks a Staff Palliative Care Chaplain to provide spiritual and emotional support to patients with serious illness and their families. The role includes assessments, crisis intervention, and care planning in a collaborative IDT setting.

Responsibilities include facilitating family meetings, documenting in the EMR, and responding to crises. Requires CPE units, endorsed standing, and 2+ years in healthcare chaplaincy, with palliative care experience preferred.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree is required.
• Two+ years of health care chaplaincy experience, with at least one year in palliative care.
• Endorsement letter from endorsing/recommending organization within 12 months.

Responsibilities

• Provide spiritual assessments, crisis intervention, and pastoral care within palliative care.
• Participate in IDT rounds and ICU Early Intervention Model.
• Facilitate family meetings and assist in care planning.
• Document spiritual assessments and outcomes in the EMR.
• Respond to crises (resuscitations, trauma, etc.) and participate in ethics discussions.

Skills

Empathetic listening

Pastoral counseling

Crisis intervention

Interdisciplinary teamwork

Verbal communication

Written communication

Meeting management

Electronic documentation

Interfaith knowledge

Family dynamics awareness

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

CPE: 2 units (NACC/APC BCCi)

CPE: 4 units (NACC/APC BCCi)

HD healthcare chaplaincy experience

Endorsement from ecclesial body

Job description

The Staff Palliative Care Chaplain provides compassionate spiritual and emotional support to patients with serious or life-limiting illnesses, their families, and caregivers. As a member of the interdisciplinary palliative care team, the chaplain conducts spiritual assessments, offers crisis intervention, and contributes to care planning and decision-making. This role involves facilitating family meetings, supporting advanced care planning, and coordinating resources to meet the unique spiritual and emotional needs of each patient.

Essential Functions

• Assists patients, families, and visitors in coping with psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual needs during illness, trauma, and stress, while also offering caregiver and physician support for grief, moral distress, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue.
• Participates in daily palliative care interdisciplinary team (IDT) rounds, including in the ICU, and engages in the ICU Early Intervention Model to support identified palliative care patients, collaborating with the team to develop and implement ongoing care plans.
• Partners with ICU attending and resident physicians to assess the need and timing for family meetings, participates and may schedule and facilitate those meetings.
• Conducts chart reviews to locate patients’ advance directives and assists in completing them when needed, ensuring that patients’ wishes are clearly documented and respected.
• Develops, implements, and documents spiritual assessments, interventions, and outcomes, and ensures accurate and professional documentation in the electronic medical record system.
• Responds to crisis situations such as resuscitations, trauma, rapid response, death, and security alerts, and participates in ethics consultations and triage calls as directed by the care site.
• Works as a collaborative member of the Spiritual Care department by attending meetings, contributing to quality improvement plans and strategy deployment, promoting teamwork and collegiality, and maintaining flexibility to provide shift coverage as needed.
• Participates in committees and may lead specific projects or initiatives, while also performing other duties as assigned.

Skills

• Empathetic and Exceptional Listening
• Spiritual Assessment and Pastoral Counsel
• Crisis Intervention and Supportive Presence
• Interdisciplinary and Team Collaboration
• Verbal and Written Communication
• Meeting and Priority Management
• Digital and Electronic Documentation Competence
• Interfaith Knowledge and Cultural Sensitivity
• Family and Group Dynamics Awareness

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree (accredited)
• Completion of 2 units of Accredited Clinical Pastoral Education meeting approval of NACC/APC BCCi completed within 2 years of hire
• Completion of four units of Clinical Pastoral Education meeting approval of NACC/APC BCCi completed within 2 years of hire
• Two or more years of health care chaplaincy experience, with at least one of those years specifically in palliative care.
• Documentation from ecclesial judicatory body of current endorsement and/or reference prescribed in accordance with applicant’s spiritual/faith tradition (received or reaffirmed within the last 12 months) articulating current endorsement/authorization for hospital chaplaincy ministry and applicant’s good standing with endorsing/authorizing body.
• The letter must be mailed, emailed, or faxed directly from the endorsing/recommending organization.
• Faith groups must be recognized by the Department of Defense (Armed Forces chaplains Board) or previously reviewed and approved by the BCCi.
• If not, approval of documentation of authorization/endorsement must come from Intermountain Mission office regarding a review of the faith group.

Preferred Qualifications

• Completion of 4 or more units of Clinical Pastoral Education meeting approval by NACC/APC BCCI
• Three or more years of relevant spiritual care experience in palliative care.

Physical Requirements Ongoing need for employee to see and read information, labels, documents, monitors, identify equipment and supplies, and be able to assess customer needs. Frequent interactions with providers, colleagues, customers, patients/clients and visitors that require employee to verbally communicate as well as hear and understand spoken information, needs, and issues quickly and accurately. Manual dexterity of hands and fingers to manipulate complex and delicate supplies and equipment with precision and accuracy. This includes frequent computer use for typing, accessing needed information, etc. For roles requiring driving: Expected to drive a vehicle which requires sitting, seeing and reading signs, traffic signals, and other vehicles.

Location: Intermountain Health LDS Hospital Work City: Salt Lake City Work State: Utah Scheduled Weekly Hours: 40 The hourly range for this position is listed below. Actual hourly rate dependent upon experience. $28.06 - $44.20

We care about your well-being – mind, body, and spirit – which is why we provide our caregivers a generous benefits package that covers a wide range of programs to foster a sustainable culture of wellness that encompasses living healthy, happy, secure, connected, and engaged. Learn more about our comprehensive benefits package here.

By applying for a position with Intermountain, I acknowledge that I will comply with all applicable Intermountain policies and expectations. If applying for a remote or hybrid role, this includes remote work expectations related to confidentiality, information security, work schedules, conflicts of interest, and use of company equipment. I further acknowledge that outside employment or activities may not interfere with job responsibilities or create a conflict of interest with Intermountain. Actual or reasonably perceived conflicts may be grounds for disqualification from consideration or, if hired, corrective action up to and including termination of employment.

Intermountain Health is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

Intermountain Health’s PEAK program supports caregivers in the pursuit of their education goals and career aspirations by providing up-front tuition coverage paid directly to the academic institution. The program offers 100+ learning options to choose from, including undergraduate studies, high school diplomas, and professional skills and certificates. Caregivers are eligible to participate in PEAK on day 1 of employment. Learn more.

The primary intent of this job description is to set a fair and equitable rate of pay for this classification. Only those key duties necessary for proper job evaluation and/or labor market analysis have been included. Other duties may be assigned by the supervisor.

All positions subject to close without notice.

Thanks for your interest in continuing your career with our team!