VCU College of Health Professions

Overview

The Spiritual Care* Companion Continuing Education Program is a 6-week online live webinar series. The program is for individuals leading or working in social service, social justice, health equity organizations, health care or other related fields, and faith communities. If you are interested in:

• Obtaining skills for integrating spiritual care into your workplace/practice/care of others,
• Gaining resources for recognizing when a person is in a spiritual distress, or
• Developing skills for offering spiritual care in various settings,

this continuing education program will be beneficial to you.

This six-week continuing education program is one day a week in the evening and facilitated by professional chaplains at VCU Health. Topics include spiritual care in crisis, spiritual care in grief and bereavement, high-level spiritual care assessment and intervention, spiritual care through listening and knowing yourself, and spiritual care with children and youth. At this time, we are not currently offering CEU’s for this continuing education. However, we anticipate being approved for physicians, advance practice clinicians, nursing and social workers for the 2024 offering.

*The feelings & beliefs present in all human beings to find & construct meaning about life, sense of self, & existence and to move toward personal growth, peace, responsibility, & connectedness with others & nature.

Facilitators

Marilyn J. D. Barnes MS, MA, MPH, BCC is the Rev. Robert B. Lantz Chair and Assistant Professor Patient Counseling Department in the College of Health Professions at VCU and the Director of the Spiritual Care Department in the VCU Health Care System. Marilyn is a chaplain researcher, with several publications including the seminal chaplaincy research, “What do I do? Developing a taxonomy of chaplaincy activities and interventions for spiritual care in intensive care unit palliative care,” (BMC Palliative Care, 2015). Marilyn is an experienced professional chaplain, leader, and researcher who believes in applied leaders for chaplaincy education students.

Caitlyn Bailey, M Div., MS, BCC is the Clinical Pastoral Education Manager at VCU Health. Caitlyn is a Certified Educator with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, a Board Certified Chaplain and an affiliate assistant professor in the Patient Counseling Department in the College of Health Professions at VCU. Caitlyn trains chaplain interns and residents and has research interests in using the arts in chaplain education and formation and healthcare worker resiliency.

Calvin Bradley Jr. serves as an Assistant Professor in Patient Counseling as well as Pediatric Chaplain and Service Line Liaison for the Children’s Hospital of Richmond (CHOR) at VCU Health. He is a Board-Certified (BCC) Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC), a Healthcare Ethics Certified Consultant (HEC-C) with the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), and a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) with the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).

Rev. Leigh Finnegan-Hosey, M.Div. is a Faculty Instructor in the Patient Counseling Department of VCU's College of Health Professions and the Pediatric and Women's Health Chaplain at VCU Health. Leigh has served as a chaplain for the past seven years, working exclusively at large academic medical centers. Her areas of interest include grief support, multi-faith chaplaincy, and developing innovative tools for spiritual reflection.

Rev. Stephanie Hamilton is the VCU Health Coordinator for Bereavement Services and the Spiritual Care Department’s Chaplain Liaison for Trauma, Surgery and the Emergency Department. Vibrant in her calling as a Chaplain for over twenty-seven years, Stephanie is skilled in interdisciplinary collaboration and care during crises, with a focus on grief and team member support. Stephanie enjoys precepting students, empowering persons in discovering and strengthening their unique giftedness.

Rev. Clara M. Owens, M.Div., M.S., BCC, serves as a Board-Certified Family Communications Coordinator Staff Chaplain at Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital in Richmond VA, providing emotional and or spiritual support to patients, their families and staff. Clara’s responsibilities include working side by side with the Life Net Organ Procurement Organization Transplant Coordinators for Organ Donation as daytime lead Family Communications Coordinator, (FCC). Clara serves in a liaison leadership role to assist in training chaplain residents and interns; she also serves as an affiliate graduate faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Schedule

Each synchronous session is 60 minutes, on a Tuesday evening from 6:00 – 7:00 PM for six-weeks.

September 19th – Session 1. Introduction to Spiritual Care Companioning/Know Thyself (Bailey)
September 26th – Session 2. The Art of Listening (Finnegan-Hosey)
October 3rd – Session 3. Spiritual Care Assessment and Interventions (Barnes)
October 10th – Session 4. Grief and Bereavement (Hamilton)
October 17th – Session 5. Spiritual Care in Crisis (Owens)
October 24th – Session 6. Spiritual Care with Children and Youth (Bradley)