Allison, CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) is normally a go-away-for-12-weeks thing, done either on paid professional leave from some other social-work-type job, or during seminary; it's expensive, too.

I do have Red Cross "emergency interface" training I can re-cert at any time, and there is a former CPE trainer in our area who cobbled up a make-do program for two locally-trained ordinands-to-be.

His cert was not "the" cert, and I can honestly say that in one case, the trainee bailed on the part I most want-- the "verbatims" and group discussions post-pastoral-visit-- and still got his cert. I'm thinking how to beef that up so I can stay local and cheap-- audit some social work courses, for instance, IF I can get Gene to work with me as well. The other person he certed did do ALL the time he requested, and more-- and got the same "cert." [shrug]

I do not need the in-person "chaplain-on-call" visits-- we make enough of those that I can use past events for training discussions. And I do not want to wear a collar and parachute into unknown ERs. I just want to be able to cover that first 1/2 hour of a local visit while Hardi's coffee kicks in, and hand off to him with appropriate briefings. Not to cover for him on an all-night shift, but just be a better-prepared inteface with the hospital.

They can be picky about who comes into ICU "after hours," or a death watch, an ER death, etc., to interface with patients or families. Not becuase of the kinds of worries people might expect-- confidentiality concerns, etc.-- I pass muster on all that on a daily basis in these parts, and I interview diocesan ordination candidates on THEIR boundaries, etc.

Nope, what they actually worry about is that people who have not done CPE are said to be both lightweights not up to blood and gore (I am), or "agenda-driven" inapproriate (Pentecostal variety) proselytizers.

The thought is, they want a person they can "control" if a visit goes horribly wroing. CPE is no guard against that-- Hardi has a file full of horror stories about dumb stuff "certed" colleagues have done over his many ordained years who just did not have a gift for that kind of work-- but it does reassure the hospitals and the diocese. It makes you a "known" quantity unto them.

~Susan