17．宗教家の役割—チャプレンとスピリチュアルケア

“Hoping” as part of ICU interprofessional collaboration：Chaplains and spiritual care

スピリチュアルケアとチャプレンについての基本的なことを紹介する。宗教的な求めへの応答だけではなく，宗教性はなくてもスピリチュアルな求めはあるかもしれないという理解についてである。ICU領域においても，死をはじめどうしようもない現実を受け止めていくための援助が必要なのではないだろうか。病気を経て，スピリチュアルケアを受けたのがきっかけで人生を見直したり，祈りの意味に気づいたり，「役に立つこと」や「人に迷惑をかけないこと」だけが人間の価値判断基準ではないことを学んだりすることもある。ただICU領域でのチャプレンと医療職との連携はまだ十分にとれていない現実もあり，これからの展開が必要とされるのではないだろうか。

The purpose of this article is to provide a basic understanding of spiritual care, the role of a hospital chaplain and responding to religious needs. There are patients who declare themselves “non-religious” who still need spiritual care. In the ICU, patients who face their own death and/or have life threatening crises need spiritual care. Patients who have received spiritual care may have the opportunity to revise their attitude towards their own life and/or death, to understand the deeper meaning of prayers and to learn that societal norms such as “be useful or helpful” or “do not be troublesome person” dose not have an absolute value, which is often misunderstood in Japanese society. Most hospitals in Japan do not include a hospital chaplain as one of the staff members. The ICU staff in St. Luke's does not have a solid enough relationship with the hospital chaplain. We need to develop a way to take care of the spiritual needs of patients.