Chaplains' Roles as Mediators in Critical Clinical Decisions

Chaplains provide spiritual care and support to patients, families, and hospital staff. What may be less familiar is that chaplains also help mediate decisions among patients, family members, and clinical teams. How clinicians, patients, and families formulate and articulate their goals and concerns can be informed either directly or indirectly by religious values. Finding common ground and common language can be helpful for both the medical team and the family. Physicians can use their clinical and social authority to try to ameliorate distress and offer recommendations based on patients' and families' goals and values; conversely, physicians' hesitancy to use their authority in these ways can generate moral distress among patients, families, and caregivers. However, when the medical team engages in conversation with a willingness to be informed by patients' religious worldview, more effective decision making may ensue.