Carol Battye, Thomas E. Rodgerson, Ph.D.
Integrated training for medical and chaplain interns
Given that American hospitals usually train medical and chaplain interns on separate, parallel tracks, how can the newly launched innovative community-based Clinical Pastoral Education program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, MD foster the integrated training of these two ancient healing arts? Based upon an eleven-week clinical rotation with medical teams at JHBMC, a chaplain intern describes, analyzes, and proposes actions to address the new ministry opportunities drawn from making integrated rounds within the patient-centered Aliki project at JHBMC. Based on clinical experience and dialogue with medical interns and residents, the author proposes both immediate and longer-term goals to successfully integrate evidence-based bio-medical and pastoral training to the benefit of the entire hospital community.