Professional Career Development in Pastoral

Care: Chaplain, Director of Pastoral Care, Mission Leader

byBarbara Brumleve, SSND, Ph.D.

Alegent Health, Omaha NENACC Conference 2008

Objectives

• Explore the process of advancing in one’s pastoral care career. Identify practical steps.

• Identify competencies and language needed especially as related to – IT - Institutional Technology– HR – Human Resources– Finance

Ministry Paths in Pastoral Care

Board-certified Chaplain

Director of Pastoral Care – responsible for chaplains as well as others who work in Pastoral Care; e.g.

pastoral volunteers, community clergy

Mission Integration Leader – responsible for a number of services including pastoral care

Director of Pastoral Care

• Serves as member of Management Team and on facility committees.

• Prepares and monitors annual budget.• Integrates department goals with overall goals of

system.• Interviews, hires, and evaluates performance of

department members.• Implements a program to measure productivity

and quality assurance.• Plans for future needs of the department.

Mission Integration Leader. . .

• Serves as member of the leadership team and facilitates the understanding and application of the mission and values in strategic planning, policy development, and operational decision-making.

• Collaborates with system leaders to integrate mission and values in substantive and measurable ways into core processes.

• Directs and manages the mission-related programs and services.

“The keys to career management are finding out how successful

careers are built, figuring out how far you can and want to go,

analyzing what’s getting in your way, exposing yourself to new tasks that build your skills, and

getting noticed by decision makers.”

Lombardo and Eichinger, FYI (For Your Improvement), p. 32

To move along this path means . . .

• Pastoral care in a different venue and with a different audience

• Greater responsibilities

• New expectations including that you will be “nimble”

• Possibility of more hours of work

• Higher salary

• Different kind of feedback

To move along this path means answering questions like . . .

• Where do you want to go? Facility size? Location? Stand alone or part of system? Size of system? One-person place? Multi-person staff?

• Where is your spouse, your family, your significant other, your religious community, your diocese relative to this matter?

• Are you willing/able to re-locate if necessary?• Can you “roll” with what goes on and at the

same time keep your balance?• Are you open to the Spirit?

To move along this path (1) study the environment/context and where you think it

will go in the future

• Study Health Progress (CHA) table of contents for past three years—what issues recur?

• Study Havard Business Review table of contents for past three years – what topics occur?

• What are the issues in your own system?• Review job openings for position you want. What

qualifications are listed?• In the light of your study, review your resume. What

do you need to add? What do you need?• Be a lifelong learner.

To move along this path (2) engage people who are successful

• Talk to your director or mission person; tell them your hope. Ask their help.

• Talk to people who are doing what you want to do. Ask their help.

• Watch people who are successful. What makes them successful?

• Continue being a high performer in your present job. Look at your job as though you were already in the job you want. What would you say to the person currently in your job (i.e. yourself)?

To move along this path (3) get involved in ways that support your plan

• Network with others• Find a mentor.• Practice an elevator speech that explains what

you do and what you want to do. • Use opportunities that present themselves. • Get involved in the work of your unit; e.g. impact

of LOS, raising patient and employee satisfaction/engagement scores

• Get involved in NACC groups• Connect with IT, HR, and Finance.

Information Technology

• Realities– We live in an electronic age and manage

information electronically.– Increasing competence is assumed in

• Email/calendar use and management• Word (including tables, tools, etc)• Powerpoint• Excel – spreadsheet• Access – database

– Paper-lite and paperless are values

Information Technology

• SO. . .– Make friends with your IT people.– Provide pastoral care as you do to every department– Learn to understand basic IT language; e.g. hardwire,

EMR (electronic medical record), etc. Keep a list of new words/acronyms and find out what they mean.

– Use IT help but go to them prepared• Keep data on things that are happening and make you

curious/concerned• What do you want to do now and in the future? • Pre-planning is as important in IT building as it is in brick-

and-mortar building.• Allow sufficient time.

Human Resources works with . . .

• Job descriptions• Resumes• Recruitment, interviewing, and hiring –

there are processes to follow and legal ramifications to be aware of

• Employee benefits• Performance review to include coaching,

discipline, and termination• Policies: departmental, organizational

Human Resources

You represent your organization to the employees.

Employees interpret your words and actions as the belief of your organization.

Leaders are legally responsible for their actions, regardless of whether they have been authorized or not.

Human Resources

• Be responsive.– Do follow-up with employees when they ask a

question.– Do give straightforward information concerning the

company’s policies (don’t guess).– Do be a good listener and observer.– Do respond immediately to any potentially violent

situation

• Often, employee dissatisfaction can be traced not to wages or benefits, but to their feelings about how the organization or the management team treats them.

Human Resources • So. . .

– Make friends with your HR people.– Provide pastoral care as you do to every

department.– Learn to understand basic HR language; e.g.

human capital, onboarding, throughput. Keep a list of new words/acronyms and find out what they mean.

– Caution: If you tend generally to advocate for the underdog or rescue the victim, get some coaching from your HR person for your own growth.

Finances

• Realities– Without a bottom line, we cannot practice our

mission.• In the United States, women and men religious

built education and health care on a combination of financial prowess and faith.

– Everything has a cost; e.g. meeting attendance, “unit” of pastoral care, hospitalization for pneumonia

Finances• SO. . .

– Make friends with your Finance people.– Provide pastoral care as you do to every

department.– Learn to understand basic Finance language;

e.g. balance sheet, cash flow, budget process, EBIDA, business plan. Understand revenue from side of institution and patient.

– Caution: if money is “dirty” to you or a “necessary evil,” you will have difficulty. Money is a resource for the mission.

Gross Revenue $2,4000,000

Medicare $500,000

Less contractual (300,000) $200,000

Medicaid $200,000

Less contractual (150,000) $50,000

PPO $500,000

Less contractual (150,000) $350,000

HMO $700,000

Less contractual (350,000) $350,000

Self-Pay $500,000

Less Charity care (400,000) $100,000

Net Revenue $1,050,000

“Organizations can be complex mazes with many turns, dead ends, quick routes and choices. In most organizations, the best path to get some- where is almost never a straight line. There is a formal organization—the one on the organization chart—where the path may look straight and then there is the informal organization where all paths are zigzagged. Since organizations are staffed with people, they become all the more complex. There are gatekeepers, expediters, stoppers, resisters, guides, good Samaritans and influen- cers. All of these types live in the organizational maze.

The key to being successful in maneuvering through complex organizations is to find your way through the maze to your goal in the least amount of time while making the least noise. The best way to do that is to accept the complexity of organiza- tions rather than fighting it and learn to be a maze-bright person.”

Lombardo and Eichinger, FYI (For Your Improvement, p. 232).

Recommended Resource

Lombardo, Michael M. and Eichinger, Robert W. FYI (For Your Improvement): A Development and Coaching Guide for Learners, Supervisors, Managers, Mentors and Feedback Givers. Minneapolis: Lominger Limited, Inc., 2000.

-- 67 competencies, based on research-- unskilled, skilled, and overused skill -- map: what competency means, why important

-- 10 strategies for gaining the competency

$75.00

Another Resource

• Frankel, Lois P. PhD. Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers. NY: Warner Business Books, 2004.

Each mistake chapter (1-2 pages) is followed by some coaching tips.

“The keys to career management are finding out how successful

careers are built, figuring out how far you can and want to go,

analyzing what’s getting in your way, exposing yourself to new tasks that build your skills, and

getting noticed by decision makers.”

Lombardo and Eichinger, FYI (For Your Improvement), p. 32

If you are willing to embark on the journey . . .

• The need is real

• The rewards are great

Welcome to the journey; thanks for embarking on it.