Role and value of Chaplains.pdf

Chaplains are embedded in several ambulance services across Australia, however asAustralia’s religiosity is currently in decline and questions are being asked aboutretaining chaplains, little is actually known about their role and value within Ambu-lance services. The aim of this paper is to present the key findings from interviewswith chaplains about their role and value of being ambulance chaplains. These find-ings are then compared with those of paramedics derived from an earlier phase ofthis study. Thirteen chaplains participated in semi-structured interviews, and datawere analysed using framework analysis. The results indicated that ambulance chap-lains provided paramedic-centred emotional and spiritual care through proactivelyand reactively supporting paramedics in their work. Chaplains saw value in theirrelational approach which facilitated trust and access, did not seek to ‘fix’ or diag-nose but instead offered physical and emotional presence, and promoted supportiveconversations. Chaplains and paramedics valued operationally trained and equippedambulance chaplains who provided a relational, around the clock, ‘frontline’ staffsupport presence in paramedic workplaces, regardless of the paramedic’s personalreligious/spiritual beliefs