Clinical Pastoral Education

UofL Health Care is fully accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. to offer clinical pastoral education (CPE) at all training levels: Level 1, Level 2, and Supervisory Education.  Consistent with our mission to serve as a major teaching hospital for education and training of healthcare providers and to provide an unequaled level of measurable quality in the delivery of health care which is responsive to the needs and values of the patient, their families and staff, UofL Health Care supports CPE training, believing that total patient care demands attention to the spiritual, as well as the physical and emotional needs of each patient.  The CPE program is an integral part of the Chaplaincy Services Department and students work alongside experienced spiritual care clinicians.

Clinical Pastoral Education is interfaith professional education for ministry. It brings theological students, ministers of all faiths (pastors, priests, rabbis, imams and others) and interested laypersons into supervised encounters with persons in crisis. Out of an intense involvement with persons in need, and the feedback from peers and teachers, students develop new awareness of themselves as persons and of the needs of those to whom they minister. From theological reflection on specific human situations, they gain a new understanding of ministry. Within the interdisciplinary team process of helping persons, they develop skills in interpersonal and inter-professional relationships.

UofL Health Care offers both CPE internships for single training units and a year-long CPE residency program. As a major teaching hospital and the only level one trauma center in the region, University of Louisville Hospital offers unique opportunities for students and residents interested in learning the art and science of spiritual care by working with an experienced team of medical professionals in an exciting clinical environment.  Along with trauma care, clinical placements include various specialized intensive care units, a burn unit, an inpatient oncology program that includes a Bone Marrow Transplant unit, and outpatient oncology services at The James Graham Brown Cancer Center , one of the nations finest cancer treatment and research institutions.  Chaplains also work with the palliative medicine team and on the psychiatric units.