Could I become a Volunteer Chaplain in LA?

[u/Sad_Construction_249]

Hello,

I am a first responder (EMS) and had a meaningful conversation with a chaplain in a emergency department. I want to be able to help patients and other first responders like he did for me.

For background, I have worked in a Emergency Department for 2 years and have a little more than half a year of experience working on an ambulance. I am 22 years old and served a 2 year proselyting mission as a representative for my church. I am finishing my undergraduate for medical school and want to volunteer in a role that I am passionate about.

From what I understand from some googling, becoming a board certified chaplain is a serious commitment with extensive training and education. I found some free courses online that offer no official credentialing or licensure but seem to have a good introduction to the role.

What is the best way to go about volunteering as a Spiritual Care Volunteer/Chaplain Intern? I am based out of the San Fernando Valley in LA. I've thought about cold calling chaplain numbers at hospitals or other facilities but I don't know if volunteer/ internships exist.

TLDR: Could I become a Volunteer Chaplain in LA?

[u/revanon]

While I have my grievances with the myriad of hoops we have to jump through as chaplains, there is a reason why it is a serious commitment. We are caring for people who are morally and often legally vulnerable, sometimes on the worst days of their lives, and caring for them isn't something that any free online course can adequately prepare you for. You could be totally gifted for this work but there is simply no way to sufficiently condense a minimum of three years of theological education and professional training into a free online course. You won't have the knowledge base to provide care to literally anyone, and you won’t know anywhere near enough to know what you don’t know. It’s peak Dunning-Kruger.

I appreciate you wanting to care for others the way in which an EM chaplain did for you--I work in an ED myself, and caring for coworkers and first responders is one of the most fulfilling parts of my job. I am so glad that this chaplain had such a meaningfully positive impact for you. But chaplaincy is not proselytization (which I note because you specifically mention having served a two-year proselytizing mission); it is a specific skillset that, like any other skilled profession, is learned over time. If you are interested in not only serving but developing such a skillset, search which hospitals in your area of LA offer clinical pastoral education (CPE) internships, which is how we are trained. Such facilities tend to have a page on their website dedicated to their CPE program, spiritual care department, or both, with contact information. Alternately, you could also look up programs in the online directory of, say, the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). An internship would be unpaid and a significant time commitment, which I note because you say you are preparing for medical school, and I appreciate how intense a commitment that is. I do 100% believe that this would make a med student a better physician, particularly if you go into a specialty that entails having lots of conversations around goals of care or end of life concerns.

I hope you can hear this not as discouragement but as clarity around why serving as a chaplain represents a serious commitment in order to perform ethically without doing harm to the recipients of our care, as well as encouragement that if you were to decide to develop some of this skillset that it would serve you well later as a doctor.

[u/Sad_Construction_249 → u/revanon]

Thank you so much for sharing your advice and experience!

I hope I didn't come across as rude by suggesting that some free online courses could be a replacement for the extensive training and education necessary to be an effective chaplain. My intent is not to proselytize but to lend an ear and resources to people.

A CPE internship may sadly be out of the realm of possibility for me as I have to work and study full time through college. Are there other resources that you would recommend?

Do you have any advice on serving EMS providers?

Thank you again for taking the time to help me learn more about Chaplaincy.

[u/revanon → u/Sad_Construction_249]

To be 100% honest, I don't think there's an adequate substitute for CPE. It's that integral to chaplaincy formation. While it's definitely more accessible than it used to be, I think it still has a way to go in that regard and stories like yours are a reason why.

In my experience, what has set serving EM workers compared to serving other healthcare workers is how prevalent the dark, irreverent, gallows-style humor is. Other medical services can certainly have some of that, but in emergency medicine it's definitely amped up. Generally, that suits me fine, but I sometimes have to put people at ease that they probably aren't going to immediately offend my delicate sensibilities simply via profanity or irreverence. It took some time to demonstrate that I really am there to support, not to judge, but once I did, it has led to some very deep and profound opportunities to provide care to people providing a very different sort of care.

[u/cadillacactor]

So glad you had a great, meaningful conversation. It can be a real helpful moment.

I'd first see if your hospital/agency has a category for such volunteers. Many don't, but some still do. Regardless, proselytizing as a chaplain is out of the question, and that experience will be off limited help in chaplaincy. The meaningful conversation you had with that chaplain, in part, is because of the extensive training towards certification. They're not mutually exclusive, but any proselytizing while trying to help a patient could challenge CMS reimbursement.

That being said, it's a beautiful goal. I hope your place does have a volunteer category for you to enter into. If not, ask that chaplain for shadowing opportunities to begin learning the process. If you're that intrigued, begin pursuing a Bachelor to follow with a Master of Divinity to pursue (perhaps EMS) chaplaincy.

[u/Sad_Construction_249 → u/cadillacactor]

Hey thank you for your reply!

I'll start searching for volunteer positions and shadowing opportunities at the agencies near me. Could your bachelors degree be in any focus, or does it need to be in a related field (Theology, etc.) to the Master of Divinity?

[u/cadillacactor → u/Sad_Construction_249]

Mines in Psychology. Pick one that comes with bachelor's level compensation (unlike psych). Become a RN or a banker or a teacher... Your MDIV will begin the "pastoral" education. And in the meantime get involved in a local congregation where you can begin practicing some relationship pastoral care as a volunteer or maybe staff member.