One unit of CPE at Sutter Medical Center requires a minimum of 400 clinical and educational hours. You must have a minimum of 100 hours of individual and group education and 250 hours of clinical work within the hospital setting for each unit of education.
Direct Spiritual Care
As a CPE student, you become part of the Sutter interdisciplinary team. You work as the chaplain on specific clinical areas of the hospital, providing spiritual care to those on your assigned units. As a member of the interdisciplinary team, you attend patient care rounds and communicate closely with other disciplines caring for patients. You also rotate overnight and weekend coverage. When on call for hospital emergencies, you have opportunity to interact with many different professionals and situations in all areas of the hospital.
Didactic Seminars and Workshops
You are educated throughout the program curriculum. We provide weekly didactic presentations during CPE units. Every CPE unit includes resources to enhance your knowledge of the hospital institution, medical diagnosis, behavioral sciences, trauma informed care, culture, interfaith awareness, chaplaincy research, medical ethics and other topics related to contemporary spiritual care. We use the Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento staff and our greater Sacramento community as resources to examine modern concerns in healthcare chaplaincy. Each unit the curriculum will vary to reflect cutting edge issues in spiritual care.
Clinical Supervision
Individual education is a critical component to your learning process. This one-on-one time with your educator provides you opportunities to share and reflect upon your clinical and peer group experiences. Working with your educator, you bring forward areas of growth to help you become a competent spiritual care provider.
Work Within a Peer Group
Group work is foundational to CPE. You join a peer group that is a learning resource and provides support and encouragement throughout the CPE process. You meet with the other CPE students and the educator as a group to reflect upon your religious or spiritual tradition, to present specific encounters of your clinical work, to hone spiritual care skills, to engage in interpersonal group relations and to learn about group dynamics. At the end of the program, you will participate in a final self-evaluation with your peer group and engage feedback.
Reading and Writing
To integrate your learning, there are writing and reading assignments directly related to professional chaplaincy. Weekly reflections along with clinical presentations, theological essays and other assignments help you to share yourself and your process with the peer group and to receive support as you integrate your learning.
Specialization
Because students are on call for the entire hospital, you learn to care for people in varied situations. Still, there is opportunity to specialize. You have opportunities to focus in pediatrics, neonatal intensive care, cardiac care, psychiatric patient care, adult ICU care and palliative care. We also offer a second year residency if you wish to deepen a specialization.
To enroll you need to complete an ACPE application form and then interview with an ACPE educator or a designated person familiar with the program.
