UAMS Clinical Pastoral Education Programs
The CPE program at UAMS Medical Center has a history that extends over thirty years. Chaplain interns and residents serve as hospital chaplains and provide pastoral care and emotional support to patients, families, and hospital staff.
Clinical Pastoral Education training at UAMS is robust in keeping with an academic medical setting and level 1 trauma center. CPE trainees learn to negotiate the complexities of a modern healthcare facility with its attendant administrative obligations and demands for professionalism.
Upon completion of the Clinical Pastoral training, one is conversant with an interdisciplinary approach to patient care, electronic medical documentation, and the provision of pastoral and emotional support to a broad patient population. Evening, weekend, and overnight on-call responsibilities are assigned depending on the clinical requirements of each unit.
The CPE program focuses on the development of self-awareness, formation of pastoral identity, professional functioning, and the ability to address issues from a competent clinical and pastoral perspective.
The Clinical Pastoral Training Programs at UAMS are accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy, and Clinical Pastoral Education International.
Clinical Pastoral Education Programs Offered
Residency Program
- A one-year residency program that commences in September and completes in August Residents complete 4 units of Clinical Pastoral Training over a one-year period. The residency is designed for the ordained person with a seminary degree who has completed at least one unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. On occasion, a Layperson may qualify for admission.
Part-time Extended Program
- This is a nine-month intern program that commences in September and completes in May. The training group meets on Tuesdays. Interns complete 1 unit of Clinical Pastoral Training over a nine-month period. UAMS offers both a daytime and an evening part-time extended program.
Full-Time Summer Program
- An eleven-week Intensive Training Program that commences in June and completes in August. Interns complete 1 unit of Clinical Pastoral Training in an eleven-week period.