Dear SOCREL subscribers,

See below for the particulars of a research post being adverstised by the
Lincoln Theological Institute.

Sophie
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From: Dr Martyn Percy <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: job details
Date: 14 December 1998 17:32

LONDON/SHEFFIELD BASED PILOT STUDY
Responding to Change: Health Care Chaplaincy in the NHS

Project Specifications and Post Details

 ADVERTISEMENT

Lincoln Theological Institute for the Study of Religion and Society

Senior Research Associate (Salary Scale B.1; £27,626 pa)

Initially a one year pilot Research project, exploring the nature of
Healthcare Chaplaincy in a changing NHS.  Candidates would need a
background in Social Sciences, have an understanding of the NHS, and
be theologically literate.  The project is based in Sheffield, but the
intitial fieldwork will be London-based.

Applications: by the end of January 1999
Interviews: mid February
Start Date: negotiable.
Initial Enquiries to: The Director, Dr Martyn Percy.  Tel: 0114
2226399
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A Project of the Lincoln Theological Institute
for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Sheffield.

Revd Canon Dr Martyn Percy: Director of the Lincoln Theological
Institute Revd Mark Cobb: Chaplain, Royal Hallamshire Hospital,
Sheffield Hon. Project Director: Professor David Clark, University of
Sheffield & Trent Palliative Care Centre.

Background:
The 1990's has seem a significant extension in chaplaincy services.
This is reflected in the number of new chaplaincy posts being
established, the explicit recognition of a right to religious (if not
spiritual) care in the Patient's Charter, and a series of
publications, notably the NAHAT document (University of Leeds) and
Health Service Guide: no. 92.  At the same time, problems have also
emerged that `traditional' chaplaincy did not have to address.  These
include (i) new spirituality's (from Asia to New Age); (ii) rapid
turnover of patients forcing a change of role; (iii) different patient
interfaces between name, hospital and community care; (iv) a wish to
measure chaplaincy, and set criteria for successful service; (v) the
tendency to use chaplaincy as a Quality Initiative.

A study of hospital chaplaincy is very timely.  The WHO at their
Executive Meeting in January 1998 changed their definition of `health'
to include the meeting of spiritual needs.  The recent publication of
the White Paper, The New NHS, includes a plethora of Quality
Initiatives that focus of meeting the needs of consumers, value for
money and effectiveness.  The paper heralds another agenda for change
in an organisation that has undergone substantial transformation
within the last decade.  The aspiration of the present Government to
replace the internal market with `integrated care' is evidence of the
substantive paradigm shifts in the contours of health care provision.
Many of the reforms and restructuring of the NHS over the years have
been shaped by a variety of factors: ideological, medical, social and
economic.  New perspectives on health and health care have
dramatically reshaped the NHS and demanded new approaches from health
care professionals.

Chaplains have not been isolated from these processes, and far from
being alienated by them, have found that `the environment has come to
positively demand the spiritual and pastoral - on a number of levels.'
  Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research on the practice and
role of chaplains in health care; there has been little study of how
chaplains have responded and adapted to the changing environment in
which they work.

For example, there are questions of accessibility and civic duty that
hospitals increasingly face in the midst of their communities.
Technological advances, the necessity of research, all allied to
funding and financial constraints, can actually obscure the hospital's
commitment to treat all sick people regardless of cost.  Furthermore,
hospitals continue to be the focus of many of the moral questions that
face modern medicine, such as euthanasia.  In the midst of this,
hospital chaplains now have a potentially multifarious function,
perhaps being required to facilitate increasingly complex ethical
reflection for the institution, whilst at the same time participating
in the structures to support staff at all levels, as well as being
available as a pastoral and spiritual resource for patients, their
families and friends.  In addition to this, chaplains may also be
required to offer specialised forms of ministry to the churches, and
to the local community.  In view of all these considerations, a study
of hospital chaplaincy initiated to follow the 50th anniversary of the
NHS, and at the turn of the Millennium, is most timely.

Revd Canon Dr Martyn Percy
Director
Lincoln Theological Institute
for the Study of Religion and Society
University of Sheffield
36 Wilkinson Street
Sheffield S10 2GB
United Kingdom
Tel: (UK) 0114 222 6399
Fax: (UK) 0114 276 3973
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