Spiritual and Pastoral Care
Pastoral training programme and placements
The Pastoral Care Teams run a pastoral training and placement programme for anyone thinking about working or volunteering in a chaplaincy or pastoral care setting.
Our Pastoral Care Training candidates learn by serving as volunteer hospital chaplains at Watford General Hospital and then sharing and reflecting upon their experiences with their supervisor and fellow volunteers and our team of qualified chaplains.
Working beside our qualified clinical chaplains our trainees help to provide supervised pastoral care to inpatients and their loved ones, to outpatients, and to those in palliative care, as well as to hospital staff members.
Each chaplain-in-training is assigned to units and departments that provide opportunities to experience a variety of care settings with their unique challenges. The trainees provide supervised pastoral support and get an opportunity to become skilled in facing crises and meeting unanticipated immediate needs.
The principal learning on the training programme is at the patients’ bedside. However, our volunteer chaplains-in-training also meet regularly with a clinical supervisor to share case conferences, for seminars and to share pastoral reflections at group seminars. There is also a regularly scheduled hour-long, one-on-one session with the clinical supervisor that is devoted to the trainee’s own unique interests and particular situation.
For information about the training programme and placement options please email for more details: westherts.spiritualcare@nhs.net
