Spiritual Care

Pastoral care services are provided by a dedicated staff of chaplains, volunteers, and interns who are trained in counseling and religious disciplines. We serve all families of all faiths, providing nondenominational support or care guided by your specific religion. We honor your beliefs — and we’ll never impose different values onto you or your family.

We offer a nationally accredited Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program — one of only eight pediatric CPE programs in the United States — that educates participants of all faith traditions. We designed the program for:

• candidates preparing to be hospital chaplains
• seminarians
• community clergy
• lay religious leaders
• other  spiritual caregivers seeking continuing education

Program Specifics

The Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware Center for Education & Training is accredited by the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP).

Our program combines weekly classroom sessions (100 hours) with clinical practice (300 hours), including:

• direct ministry as a chaplain to patients and families
• interaction with interdisciplinary staff members
• individual and group supervision
• peer group sessions to share patient case studies, simulate incidents and practice responses, and reflect on faith traditions
• didactic workshops and seminars
• reading and writing assignments

What to Expect

The Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program is a unique blend of “action-reflection-action” designed to help you develop self-awareness and skills that you can put in practice to help children and families confronted with a crisis or bereavement.

Each unit of study unfolds in a similar way.

• Case studies are an important component of the learning experience.
• You will practice a step-by-step process adapted to your personal gifts and faith tradition.
• Clinical ministry forms the bulk of coursework. Classroom activities occupy approximately one half day per week.
• The program puts you in direct contact with patients, families, and a wide variety of pediatric subspecialties in a hospital that serves children and teens with chronic and serious illnesses or trauma.
• You will learn how to identify child and adolescent development and family systems.
• You will respond to all patient codes and participate in clinical rounds and case reviews.
• You will learn how to help process advanced directives and end-of-life decisions.
• Supervision and evaluations are part of the curriculum.

All CPE participants are encouraged to share their experiences and personal reflections in a supportive learning environment that respects diverse points of view.

Tuition, Fees & Application Process

• Tuition for the first unit is $500.
• Additional units are $300.
• We require a nonrefundable $100 application fee, which will be applied to the tuition if accepted.
• The Director and members of the Pastoral Consultation Advisory Committee will schedule a personal interview with applicants who submit an application and application fee.

For More Information

Contact Spiritual Care at PastoralCareProgram@nemours.org.