The professionalization of chaplaincy A Comparison of 1997 and 2017 Surveys in The Netherlands

Abstract

Chaplaincy has become increasingly professionalized in response to both the standardization in healthcare and the changing religious landscape. Whereas several studies have paid attention to the professionalization of chaplaincy as a whole, no research has been found that describes the implications for individual chaplains. The present article describes the professionalization of Dutch chaplains in the last two decades. We compared the results of two surveys conducted with chaplains in the Netherlands in 1997 and 2017. We describe professionalization by distinguishing between the changed values, expertise, and positioning of chaplains. We found that chaplains’ expertise has been developed by a growing but highly diverse body of knowledge. Furthermore, a pluralization of chaplains’ worldviews was observed, including non-religious and non-affiliated positions. Lastly, no major changes were observed in the embedding of chaplains.

Keywords:

• Chaplaincy
• pluralization
• professionalization
• spiritual care
• The Netherlands

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Martin Walton for his role in developing the survey and for permission to use the data. Next, we thank Dirk de Jong for his valuable advice on the data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Since 2015, chaplains that are not endorsed by a world view institution (e.g., the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, the Dutch Humanist Association) are admitted to the Dutch Professional Association of Chaplains (VGVZ). They have to take an assessment by the Council for Non-Denominational Chaplains.

2 This could be biased, since the first two options were mentioned as example for answering the question.

3 In the Dutch Case Studies Project in Chaplaincy Care, more than hundred case studies of chaplaincy care were produced. For the currently published case studies, see: https://ucgv.nl/case-studies-project/publications-csp/?lang=en