Clinical pastoral education

Clinical pastoral education is education to teach pastoral care, spiritual care, and chaplaincy to clergy and others. Classes of clinical pastoral education, called units, are experiential, typically taking place in healthcare and other settings where students interact with patients and clients as part of their training.

A "unit" of clinical pastoral education is 400 hours of a combination of a minimum 250 hours supervised clinical work and a minimum of 100 hours of theoretical education. The term clinical pastoral education is derived from the fact that the students' education is in a clinical setting and they are learning pastoral care/chaplaincy. Clinical pastoral education has been defined as "experienced-based theological education which promote(s) the integration of personal history, faith tradition, and the behavioral sciences in the practice of spiritual care.

Students learn in small groups with other students and a pastoral care educator, such as those credentialed by organizations including ICPT: The Standard for Spiritual Care and Education in the USA. The training includes a combination of group work, individual conversation, and time spent with patients and clients.

Clinical pastoral education is the primary method of training hospital and hospice chaplains and spiritual care providers in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is both a multicultural and interfaith experience that uses real-life ministry encounters of students to improve the care provided by caregivers.

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