At Episcopal Cafe: Dr. Poon on the Anglican Communion, Third Reflection

My newest piece is up today at Episcopal Cafe.  It is in fact my third reflection on Michael Poon’s paper on the Communion and Covenant, “The Anglican Communion as Communion of Churches: on the historic significance of the Anglican Covenant.”  Earlier posts are here and here.  As you will see in this last piece, I am no longer hopeful about the Anglican Communion in its current (already altered) form.  So, take a look and take some thought, and leave a comment.  This continues to be an important topic for us in the Episcopal Church, whatever happens with the Anglican Communion and the Anglican Covenant.

Good Places for Chaplains to Read - and to Comment!

Last week I posted from the APC Annual Conference in Schaumburg about “The Case of for Standards of Practice: Do Professional Chaplains Practice What They Preach?” a plenary presentation by George Handzo and Paul Derrickson.  In that presenatation, George Handzo mentioned two blogsites by name.  He considers them important sites for chaplains to read and, more important, to comment.  He sees that as an important way for chaplains to participate in conversations to which we would bring an important (and on these sites welcome) perspective.  He even stopped me later, knowing about my own blogging avocation, and said, "Go there.  Start commenting."

Well, I'll see his two sites and raise two - sort of.  The two sites he mentioned I already knew, and had already read.  The first is "GeriPal - A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog."  Geripal's contributors describe it as "a forum for discourse, recent news and research, and freethinking commentary."  Further, they are explicit that "We aim to be inclusive. We welcome the perspectives of generalists, specialists, gerontologists, palliative care clinicians, and anyone else interested in care of the elderly or palliative care."  Certainly, they welcome the contributions of chaplains.

The second is "Pallimed: a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog."  The contributors to Pallimed are also inclusive: "Our target audience is the professionals (MD, DO, RN, LPN, LVN, Home Health Aide, ARNP, SW, Chaplain, Administrators, PT, OT, Speech, Pharmacy, etc.) working in hospice & palliative medicine, but we welcome all readers to this blog, including patients, families and other medical professionals outside of this field."  Since they want to include us specifically, it's only good grace for us to make our contributions.

Having cited those two sites, let me suggest two others.  These will take a bit more work.  They're blog carnivals, collections of blog and web articles around a general theme (and sometimes a specific sub-theme) that are gathered periodically and hosted on various sites.  Each issue of the blog carnival has links to articles on various blogs and sites, often with an introductory comment.  The reader can then go to each article, read, and usually comment.  Since a blog carnival is hosted by a different site each week, it can take a bit to find them, but it's worth the effort.  The easiest way?  Toward the end of each issue the host notes who will host the next issue.  Just keep linking through until you catch up.

The first of these is "Grand Rounds."  It rotates weekly, and each host has the opportunity to take all comers, or to narrow the focus to a more specific theme.  If you've been a reader here for a while, you'll have seen already that now and again  submit something from this blog. I think "Grand Rounds" is always worth checking out.  Fortunately, one "Grand Rounds" participant has made the effort to keep track and so make it easier for the rest of us to find.  This week, it's at The Sterile Eye.

The second blog carnival I'd point to is "Palliative Care Grand Rounds."  It's posted the first Tuesday of each month, and is currently here.  Folks involved iin both Geripal and Pallimed are also involved in "Palliative Care Grand Rounds," so we can trust it will also provide some interesting links for us.  Now, as far as I know, no one is keeping track in one place where to find it each month.  However, next month "Palliative Care Grand Rounds" will be hosted here.

I certainly agree with George that this is a way to share the voices of chaplains among a much wider group of professional colleagues.  Oh, and for my APC colleagues: note the title and the time it takes to read.  These articles can be considered professional reading in our Continuing Education records.  So, take some time to do some reading on line, and commenting at these various sites (or at sites that are included in a blog carnival).

AEHC Web Site Suspended - and Corrected

I was informed last night that several people have tried to access the AEHC Web Site and have seen a screen saying "Account Suspended."  When I checked, I had the same experience.  It seems we've had a difficulty paying our web host.  Some of that is our fault in AEHC, and some difficulties in the online payment system the host has set up.  Please know that we are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.  In the meantime, I'll make sure I post any information necessary for AEHC here.

Correction:  Since posting this last night the problem has been corrected, and the AEHC web pages are back up.

Speaking from Schaumburg

So, here it is, Tuesday morning, and we’re more than halfway through the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) Annual Conference.  The theme of this year’s conference is “Reaching New Heights.” 

The theme has been, more and more using tools that are new and unfamiliar to most of us in the field: research, measuring, and standards.  Now, those of you who read here regularly will know that those concepts aren’t new or unfamiliar to me.  I’m a great believer in both.  That said, an ongoing theme in both responses to presentations and in thoughts overheard in passing, is “How do we do this?”  The “this” may be as small as a specific end, say, addressing compassion fatigue of staff; or as large as addressing the new Standards of Practice that have been put forward by APC’s Commission on Quality.

I would encourage folks to go to the APC web site once the conference is over and look at the various offering available on CD and DVD.  I’m going to buy several myself, even thought I’ve been present for most of them.  However, if you are a chaplain and you wanted to get just one, I would download “The Case of for Standards of Practice: Do Professional Chaplains Practice What They Preach?”  (Go here and scroll down for a description.) The named presenters are George Handzo and Paul Derrickson, both speaking and serving as a panel responding to one another and questions from the audience.  There are also presentations from leaders in APC discussing the history and processes of developing the Standards of Practice.  I think we need to listen to the various voices in the presentation, perhaps reflecting on them one at a time to see how we react.  We need to do this in context of reading and reflecting on the Standards of Practice.

I am not certain myself about these new Standards.  Note that I’m not uncertain about having Standards of Practice.  I’m uncertain about these Standards.  How will we live with, how will we manifest these Standards?

Actually, the speakers make clear in this conversation that there is something of an “adoption” process for us as chaplains.  There will be opportunities for feedback through the APC website and through workshops at future APC Conferences that can contribute to refinement.  In addition, the Quality Commission has committed to a complete review of the Standards ever two years.  With that promise, it’s clear to me that we’re not confronted with a new set of prescriptive rules that we called to meet, but with a set of descriptive parameters to which we aspire and within which we model our work globally.

That said, I’m alert to how other professions are affected by the Standards of Practice.  I have been in meetings considering disciplinary action because a given patient interaction didn’t meet “standard of care.”  That “standard” may be shaped by the standards of practice and the codes of ethics of a professional organization, and/or by state regulations.  We may – arguably, we will – find ourselves in cases of disciplining chaplains for not meeting “standards of care.”  In fact that’s why I was in one of those meetings.  As we adopt references and standards, we will certainly be held to them, at times in ways we will find uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, this is an important step in our profession, and this presentation is an important beginning to the conversation.  Give a day or two, and look up the recordings available.  I think this will be on well worth having.

To Hear Myself Talk

On March 17th I was invited to a conference on Advance Directives, sponsored by the Center for Practical Bioethics.  The purpose was to discuss the status of Advance Directives, Advance Care Planning, Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) programs and similar efforts, and preparations for National Healthcare Decisions Day, Friday, April 16th.

After the conference I was invited to participated in taping a podcast about the morning's conference, about National Healthcare Decisions Day, and about Center resources on the topic.  The podcast was initially circulated locally to the Center's Ethics Consortium, a gathering of representatives from area Ethics Committees.  However, they have now made it available at their blog, Practical Bioethics.  If you'd like to take a few minutes (all right, eleven minutes) and listen, you can do that here.

Take a moment to look at the resources available from the Center.  I can highly recommend them for National Healthcare Decisions Day, and for any other setting where the topic is Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning.