Topography of Referrals to Chaplains in the Metropolitan Chaplaincy Study

Understanding referral patterns to chaplains is essential not only to ensure proper patient treatment, but also to assist chaplains seeking to expand the range of patient situations in which they are called to intervene. Information about more than 58,000 chaplain visits was documented during the first two years (2005–2006) of the Metropolitan Chaplaincy Study. Data from 15,655 of these visits, which were made in response to referrals (26.9% of all visits), were analyzed in the present study. Seventy-eight percent of referral requests were met within the same day, and 94.9% of requests and were met within 2 days. Nurses were the most frequent source of referrals to chaplains (45.0%), followed by self-referrals from patients or requests from their family members (30.3%), with the remainder coming from a variety of hospital disciplines. The most common reason for referrals was that patients requested to see a chaplain. Other relatively common reasons for referrals were problems or issues related to illness or treatment, and end-of-life issues, concerns about death and the death of patients, with reasons for referrals differing by referral source. The most common reason for referrals among professional staff was that patients were feeling bad or in pain, followed by medical issues, and end-of-life issues. Patient and family referrals usually involved positive patient affect, whereas staff referrals usually involved negative patient affect.