Pastoral Interventions and the Influence of Self-Reporting: A Preliminary Analysis

This article presents the results of 30,700 inpatient visits by chaplains in a healthcare setting over a two-year period. The authors examine the self-report data of chaplains about patients' needs, chaplains' pastoral interventions, and patient outcomes. The article questions the common practice of self-reporting by chaplains and discusses the implication that such self-reporting is more descriptive of chaplains themselves rather than describing the needs of hospitalized patients. Recommendations are made for more qualitative research, such as patient surveys, and anchoring vignettes to supplement quantitative research.