The role of chaplains in end-of-life decision making: Results of a pilot survey

Objective: The overall aim of this study was to discover how chaplains assess their role withinethically complex end-of-life decisions.Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 256 chaplains working for German health careinstitutions. Questions about their role and satisfaction as well as demographic data werecollected, which included information about the chaplains' integration within multiprofessionalteams.Results: The response rate was 59%, 141 questionnaires were analyzed. Respondents reportedbeing confronted with decisions concerning the limitation of life-sustaining treatment on averagetwo to three times per month. Nearly 74% were satisfied with the decisions made within thesesituations. However, only 48% were satisfied with the communication process. Wheneverchaplains were integrated within a multi-professional team there was a significantly highersatisfactionwith both: the decisionsmade ( p ¼ 0.000) and the communicationprocess ( p ¼ 0.000).Significance of the results: Although the results of this study showa relatively high satisfactionamong surveyed chaplains with regard to the outcome of decisions, one of the major problemsseems to reside in the communication process. A clear integration of chaplains within multiprofessionalteams (such as palliative care teams) appears to increase the satisfaction with thecommunication in ethically critical situations.