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Chaplain skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Chaplain Example Skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical chaplain skills. We ranked the top skills for chaplains based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 21.2% of chaplain resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a chaplain needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 chaplain skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how chaplains use patients:
  • Offered full-time chaplain service/visitation to hospice patients in-home and in residential nursing facilities.
  • Provided pastoral and sacramental services to patients as part of Curricular Practical Training.

2. Social Work

Here's how chaplains use social work:
  • Collaborate with medical and social work staff to offer care for patients and families, respecting all spiritual and non-spiritual traditions.
  • Assisted Volunteer Coordinator, Bereavement Coordinator and Social Worker with support groups, social events or other scheduled activities when appropriate.

3. Clinical Pastoral

Chaplain or Clinical Pastoral must have the spiritual knowledge and deep understanding of the faith, bible, or religious book that serves as their reference for their teaching and theology.

Here's how chaplains use clinical pastoral:
  • Provided clinical pastoral education for seminarians and pastors in the process of developing their clinical skills for ministry.
  • Served as intern in Clinical Pastoral Education Accomplishments Coordinated and ran spirituality groups for Substance Abuse patients.

4. Spiritual Care

Spiritual care is a facet of healthcare that deals with the spiritual and religious needs caused by an injury or illness.

Here's how chaplains use spiritual care:
  • Provide comprehensive spiritual care that encompasses individual/group counseling, grief counseling, leading worship and ordinances, and patient/family education.
  • Provided spiritual care and encouragement to expectant mothers during delivery or after a perinatal loss provide grief support.

5. Pastoral Care

Here's how chaplains use pastoral care:
  • Implemented and provided tools for assessing and identifying spiritual resources of patients as well as monitoring and documenting pastoral care provided.
  • Visited patients/families to provide pastoral care as determined by spiritual assessment and the interdisciplinary team plan of care.

6. Patient Care

Patient care entails the diagnosis, recovery, and control of sickness as well as the maintenance of physical and emotional well-being through the use of healthcare providers' services. Patient care is described as services provided to patients by health practitioners or non-professionals under guidance.

Here's how chaplains use patient care:
  • Contributed to inter-disciplinary patient care-planning.
  • Attended patient care conference and interdisciplinary team/group meetings as a member of the interdisciplinary team/group.

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7. Ministry

The ministry іѕ a gоvеrnmеnt dераrtmеnt hеаdеd bу a minister whісh deals with a ѕресіfіс cause оr area of activity. Frоm the religious point оf vіеw, the mіnіѕtrу іѕ an activity саrrіеd оut by one or mоrе bеlіеvеrѕ оf a rеlіgіоn tо еxрrеѕѕ or spread thеіr faith.

Here's how chaplains use ministry:
  • Participated in visitations as part of religious team member providing pastoral support and counseling ministry to Airmen and staff personnel.
  • Visited patients/families identified as appropriate for pastoral services and provided direct spiritual counseling, prayer, and ministry as appropriate.
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8. Ethics

Ethics is a branch of knowledge that involves recommending, defending, and systemizing aspects of right and wrong behavior.

Here's how chaplains use ethics:
  • Served as chaplaincy representative on Ethics Review Board by overseeing and monitoring hospital research.
  • Participated actively in interdisciplinary rounds, ethics, palliative and oncology consults.

9. CPE

CPE is a supervised interfaith professional education for ministry imparted by a small group of experiential personnel. It is not a professional certification, rather it helps prepare for chaplaincy. It aims at providing a knowledge base and developing skills, for pastoral ministry. One can explore gifts and motivations for ministry during their education at CPE.

Here's how chaplains use cpe:
  • Developed relevant in-service education programs for staff and provided administrative supervision for CPE students.
  • Interact with CPE peers in development of pastoral theology, crisis intervention and pastoral counseling techniques and theories.

10. Home Health

Here's how chaplains use home health:
  • Provided spiritual assessment and care for hospice and home health clients from wide variety of spiritual, religious and cultural backgrounds.
  • Serve as a liaison between the clergy of the community and HomeCare Matters Home Health and Hospice.

11. Compassion

Here's how chaplains use compassion:
  • Treated all patients and families with compassion, and adapted communication to meet situations and cross- cultural issues.
  • Implement authentic demeanor, compassion and providing social services to assist in daily coping and functioning.

12. Crisis Intervention

Here's how chaplains use crisis intervention:
  • Demonstrated ability to work under pressure and provide crisis intervention and referral to appropriate resources.
  • Provide crisis intervention and patient advocacy; after initial triage and additional client assessment evaluation.

13. Religious Services

Here's how chaplains use religious services:
  • Collaborated with team of interfaith pastoral staff to facilitate pastoral programs and religious services, and to coordinate visitation.
  • Provided Spiritual counseling and Conducted Religious services to the Protestant inmate community while providing weekly biblical educations classes.

14. Community Clergy

Here's how chaplains use community clergy:
  • Interact with community clergy for patient support and the ecumenical interfaith chaplaincy program.
  • Provided educational programs for community clergy, religious and lay representatives.

15. Emotional Support

At its core, emotional support involves providing support, reassurance, acceptance, love, and encouragement. It is especially important in a time of stress/sadness as it stabilizes an individual and provides a positive foundation for trust. Honing this skill is important for individuals who want to pursue the career of caregivers and emotional support nurses. Their job includes monitoring mental health and helping patients to handle any mental challenge.

Here's how chaplains use emotional support:
  • Provided bereavement and funeral services for family members of former residents, as well as ongoing emotional support
  • Provide spiritual and emotional support to patients and families in often highly critical and emotional situations.
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List of chaplain skills to add to your resume

Chaplain Skills

The most important skills for a chaplain resume and required skills for a chaplain to have include:

  • Patients
  • Social Work
  • Clinical Pastoral
  • Spiritual Care
  • Pastoral Care
  • Patient Care
  • Ministry
  • Ethics
  • CPE
  • Home Health
  • Compassion
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Religious Services
  • Community Clergy
  • Emotional Support
  • Spiritual Support
  • Palliative Care
  • Rehabilitation
  • Spiritual Assessments
  • Veterans
  • Memorial Services
  • Spiritual Guidance
  • Excellent Interpersonal
  • Religious Education
  • Mental Health
  • Prayer
  • Community Resources
  • Religious Rites
  • Local Clergy
  • IDT
  • Crisis Situations
  • Oncology
  • Funeral Services
  • Hospice Care
  • Pastoral Support
  • Substance Abuse
  • Staff Support
  • Bereavement Support
  • Death Notifications
  • Grief Support
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Terminal Illness
  • GOD
  • Critical Care
  • ICU
  • Emotional Care
  • Suicide Prevention
  • Religious Support
  • Bereavement Care
  • Stress Management

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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