Spiritual Care Practitioner

Location: Melbourne | Northern Metropolitan

Job type: Not provided

Organisation: The Royal Women's Hospital

**Salary**: Salary not specified

Occupation: Administration/Secretarial

Reference: 24623

**Position Title: Spiritual Care Practitioner**
Ongoing Position 22.8 hours per week

**Organisational Context**

The Women’s Social Model of Health Division is a newly formed function that reinforces our commitment to the social determinants of health. Whilst all services at the Women’s ensure health equity for all women, the Social Model of Health Division brings together our services and programs that specialise in providing care to women facing challenges that may adversely affect their health. The Social Model of Health Division at the Women’s has responsibility for ensuring the hospital’s clinical and social support services are coordinated, aligned and leveraged to provide wrap around care for the women who need it most. In particular, the division has a focus on ensuring a woman’s social, economic, cultural, environmental, geographic, and other factors are taken into account in her care plan with the overall aim of reducing health inequalities and addressing systemic inadequacies that affect health access and outcomes.

**Department/Unit Specific Overview**

The Spiritual Care team is part of the Social Work department and operates across all areas of the hospital. The Spiritual Care team offers support to patients, their families and carers through their maternity, neonatal, gynaecological and oncology experiences. The Spiritual Care team also provides assessment, counselling, emotional and spiritual support and ritual in matter of a person’s beliefs, traditions, values and practices to patients, their families, carers, staff and volunteers. Spiritual Care embraces a view of patient health that is holistic, recognising the importance of spiritual care as an integral part of person-centred care. The team works with all communities and is inclusive of all beliefs, traditions, values and practices.

**Position Purpose**

The role of the Spiritual Care Practitioner is to ensure that the spiritual care needs of patients, their families, carers and staff, inclusive of all beliefs, are identified and addressed.

Your duties will include (but are not limited to) the following:

- Undertake direct clinical practice in Spiritual Care including Spiritual screening, assessment, counselling, support and ritual in matters of a person’s beliefs, traditions, values and practices for patients, their families and staff.
- Lead and undertake direct clinical practice in spiritual care planning and bereavement care [including conducting funerals)
- Ability to work with anatomical pathology and medical staff to respectfully care for deceased babies
- Ability to engage with patients and staff around reproductive decision making including with women and pregnant people seeking to end a pregnancy and support to a patient undergoing an abortion at and over 24 week gestation
- Ability to engage with patients who are victim/survivors of family violence, reproductive coercion, abuse, sexual assault and who have experienced complex trauma
- Ensure all people have access to the Spiritual Care service with ease and ensure prompt assessment of new referrals as well as allocation and prioritisation of caseload
- Ability to integrate knowledge of wider issues affecting the patient population, such as government policies, the health system and structural issues that affect patient’s health access and outcomes in particular for patients who identify as women facing challenges that may adversely affect their health.

To be successful within this role you will need to have:

- A qualification in religious studies or theology at tertiary level, e.g. Bachelor of Theology, and credentials demonstrating formation in a faith tradition or a degree in another discipline and Graduate
- Diploma in theology/religious/pastoral or human care studies
- Eligible for membership of Spiritual Health Victoria or of the Association for Supervised and Clinical Pastoral Education in Victoria (ASACPEV)
- Eligible for registration with the Continuing Professional Development Program of Spiritual Health Australia
- Supervised training in providing spiritual care (equivalent to 2 units of Clinical Pastoral Education)
- Capacity to work at Level (1-2) of the Capability Framework for Spiritual Care Practitioners in a Health Service
- Excellent interpersonal, communication and listening skills
- Proven ability to work with patients, families, carers and staff who have diverse beliefs, practices and traditions
- Ability to work effectively in a multi - disciplinary team and with families, exhibiting initiative and facilitative qualities
- Possess high level theoretical understanding and an inclusive approach to your clinical practice in relation to working with patients, their families, carers and staff
- Excellent computer skills and communication s