A DACUM Occupational Analysis of Health Care Chaplains

Until now, there has not been a single, accepted profile of the role of health care chaplains. De Vries, Berlinger, and Cadge (2008) clearly identify the issue when they say, the specific duties and responsibilities of their job are ill-defined. The duties and tasks were defined by consensus in this study using a widely used occupational analysis methodology known as DACUM. Through this study, a profile was developed by consensus and validated for the role of health care chaplain and recommendations begun for revising the current methods for developing curriculum used in Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) units. A modified DACUM was conducted following the Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) model for DACUM facilitation.There was a need to thoroughly review the role using a methodology that could be used to develop a profile that lends itself to curriculum development, training delivery, and professional consensus. One reason that there is confusion about the role is the result of there not being a standard curriculum used in the training of health care chaplains.