Examining the Distribution of Services: How Hospital Chaplaincy Screens the Religiously Unaffiliated

The proportion of religiously unaffiliated Americans has grown dramatically over the last few decades. Using updated data from the author’s previous study, “Non-religious people's experiences with spiritual care when seriously ill or injured,” 1,040 people expressed a willingness to be interviewed or part of a focus group concerning their spiritual care experiences, indicating significant interest among non-religious patients. Participant candidates self-identified as “religious and affiliated,” “religious and unaffiliated,” “spiritual but not religious,” “neither spiritual nor religious,” “none of the above,” or “other.” Patients in these groups were not offered hospital chaplaincy services evenly: “none of the above” (50%) were most likely to have not been offered chaplain services, and “religious and unaffiliated” (40%) the least. Findings and quotes from the interviews and focus groups help illustrate additional sentiments. These findings are relevant for managers of healthcare chaplaincy services in revising how they screen patients for spiritual care needs.