Once a month the ACPE Professional Ethics Commission (PEC) posts a couple of statements from our Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members. Each posting is accompanied by a brief personal reflection from a member of the PEC discussing some ways this person lives these commitments*. May’s statements are:
Code of Professional Ethics for ACPE Members statements
In relation to other groups, ACPE members:
a.Maintain professional relationships with other persons in the ACPE Center, institution in which employed and/or the community.
b.Do not directly or by implication claim professional qualifications that exceed actual qualifications or misrepresent their affiliation with any institution, organization, or individual; are responsible for correcting the misrepresentation or misunderstanding of their professional qualifications or affiliations.
Ruth Gais, ACPE Certified Educator from Lenox Hill Hospital (Northwell Health) in New York, NY, comments:
1. a. Both of the PEC standards for this month cut very closely to a crucial fact of our daily work as chaplains and educators. We are deeply committed to the work we do and, of course, with that commitment come many feelings. If we do our job correctly, we demonstrate our concern and care for our patients, their families, our colleagues, and our students. In our dreams and prayers, we want our patients to get well, their families and friends to be relieved of the burdens of anxiety and fear, our students to understand who they are as chaplains and to grow from their experiences, and our colleagues to be able to bear the heavyweight of the sorrows from the stories they hear. This is hard work! I offer no solutions; each of us is responsible for establishing appropriate boundaries and abiding by them. But, as I imagine is the case for many of us, I have come home after a day at the hospital, bearing heavy burdens, and can only say to those who love me, “It was a long hard day. I can’t tell you what happened but I will hold you a little closer tonight and feel so blessed.”
1. b. Oh how I sometimes wish I could prescribe a drug that would cure my patients or that I were a therapist who had the time and the skills to help a patient or a family understand the deep motivations behind their actions and their relationships. But I am a hospital chaplain and an educator; a patient seen on Monday may be gone by Tuesday, my students grow in their chaplain skills and, I hope, will take their learnings after they leave. But often I don’t know what happens afterward. And that is how it must be. I cannot be who I am not trained or licensed to be. I must always make these distinctions clear to myself and to others. I am an educator – I bear witness, often with great joy, to the growth of my students. I am a chaplain – I rejoice when a patient leaves the hospital and goes home. I weep when a patient I’ve seen many times dies. But my relationship to these individuals and families is bound by how I define myself to others. I cannot go beyond what my role allows me; to do so would be an act of hubris, of defiance, and would be a dishonor to the noble title of a chaplain.
*Every situation is unique, and any member should not take action based solely on the comments in the article but to base action on an independent review of the ethical standards applicable to his/her situation.
