Students — Clinical Pastoral Education at St. Mary's Hospital
The Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Program at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, Va. offers the following CPE programs:
CPE Extended Program – 1 unit credit/part-time
- $2,000 end-of-unit stipend might be available as funding allows
- Excellent learning opportunity to combine study and work
- Affordable
- Flexible clinical hours
- Free parking
- 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CPE group one weekday, plus one hour of individual supervision every other week
- Flexible hours of clinical ministry per week, which varies depending on the program's length
- Two weekends of on-call per month (Saturday or Sunday)
- Available clinical placement agreements
- Shared on-call responsibilities with staff chaplains, PRN chaplains and CPE residents
- Multiple CPE units can be achieved through this modality, which allows students to continue to work while pursuing CPE
- On-call: CPE students may choose to be on-call from home as long as they can respond to a page within 30 minutes. The spiritual care on-call suite is also available for students who prefer to stay overnight in the hospital.
CPE Hybrid Summer Internship Program – 1 unit credit/semi-full time
- $2,000 end-of-unit stipend might be available as funding allows
- Excellent learning opportunity to combine education and summer leisure
- Combines online and in-person learning modalities
- Affordable
- Free parking
- Available clinical placement agreements
- Three weekdays only. Additional time might be negotiated as needed.
- Nine hours of education and 12 hours of weekly clinical ministry (this may vary based on program type and needs)
- Two weekend days on-call per month (24 hours)
- Shared on-call responsibilities with staff chaplains, PRN chaplains and CPE residents
- On-call: CPE students may choose to be on-call from home as long as they can respond to a page within 30 minutes. The spiritual care on-call suite is also available for students who prefer to stay overnight in the hospital.
CPE Residency Program – 4 units of CPE
- $50,000 yearly stipend
- No CPE tuition cost
- Medical, visual and dental benefits
- Paid time off, on-call acknowledgment and retirement plan
- Free parking
- Shared on-call responsibilities with staff chaplains, PRN chaplains and CPE externs/interns
- 40-plus hours per week including clinical, on-call and educational activities
- CPE cohort size includes five residents: 3 CPE residents will serve at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital in Richmond, Va. and two residents will serve at Bon Secours Southside Medical Center in Petersburg, Va
- Education: All CPE residency education and supervisory activities will take place at St. Mary’s Hospital.
- On-call: CPE students may choose to be on-call from home as long as they can respond to a page within 30 minutes. The spiritual care on-call suite is also available for students who prefer to stay overnight in the hospital.
Per ACPE standards, one unit of CPE consists of a minimum of 400 hours of supervised ministry: 300 clinical hours (minimum) and 100 educational hours (minimum).
Areas of Specialty
At the completion of four units of CPE, candidates could be eligible to apply for:
- Faith-based spiritual/religious leadership roles
- Hospital staff chaplain
- Hospice chaplain
- Pediatric chaplain
- Behavioral health chaplain
- Oncology chaplain
- Palliative care chaplain
- ICU chaplain
- Emergency room chaplain
- Bereavement coordinator
- Corporate chaplain
- Veterans Affairs staff chaplain
- Prison chaplain
- College/school chaplain
- Military chaplain (requires specific military training)
- ACPE supervisory education
What Makes the Program Stand Out
Our CPE program shares some similarities with other programs, but the following characteristics differentiate us:
- Faith-based health care organization with a religiously diverse population
- Adult and pediatric emergency departments
- Diverse spiritual care department with various spiritual care lines of service
- Four-unit CPE Residency Program
- Spiritual Care Partners (volunteer) training program to prepare for CPE, if needed
- Professional chaplain development program for chaplain advancement
- Affordable tuition
- A diverse Professional Advisory Group
- Multiple clinical sites for placement agreements, including but not limited to: St. Mary’s Hospital, Memorial Regional Medical Center, St. Francis Medical Center, Richmond Community Hospital, Southside Medical Center and Bon Secours Hospice.
- Balanced experiential and academic learning
- Preceptors are board-certified chaplains
- Clinical rotations to experience different medical specialties
- Shared on-call responsibilities with staff chaplains
What are students saying?
“The intimacy and small size of group made it easier made it easier to get to know one another. Learning from different perspectives enlightened me to the ways that we can all be understood or misunderstood and helped me see where my limits are.”
“Through active participation in our classroom experiences and clinical ‘on-the-job training,' I have been prepared to walk into a variety of life changing situations as a professional and as a better human being.”
“CPE has been/is life-changing for me. It is teaching me how the trauma of my past can be and is being used for the good of humankind presently. It affords me the opportunity to work in every aspect of the human condition – the poor, the dying and the underserved, and to be an advocate for regardless of color, nationality, creed, sexual identity or orientation.”
“A wonderful experience…a time to be with patients and to learn about myself.”