Clinical Pastoral Education Residency
Saint Luke’s CPE residency is a year-long, full-time program designed for students who wish to deepen their pastoral skills, examine their vocational commitments, and achieve competence in pastoral care ministry.
Admission Requirements
Saint Luke's Clinical Pastoral Education programs follow the standards and guidelines of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc.
To be considered for admission to the CPE programs applicants must:
- Complete the Saint Luke’s CPE program application materials
- Submit signed copies of Level I evaluations (student and supervisor) indicating successful achievement of CPE Level I outcomes
- Participate in an admission interview with a qualified interviewer
- Be invited to participate in on-site admissions interview with Saint Luke’s Health System supervisors and admissions committee
- Be a high school graduate, possess a GED, or be ordained by a faith community or commission to function in ministry by an appropriate religious authority as determined by ACPE
- Possess sufficient theological education to actively participate in discussions about theological concepts and ideas
- Seminary education at master’s level is preferred
Program Learning and Service Expectations
- Provide pastoral and spiritual care to patients on assigned units
- Actively participate in all aspects of the clinical pastoral education program
- Share emergency call rotation with peers, other students, and permanent staff
- Share preaching rotation with peers and permanent staff
- Complete a Ministry Specialty Project to present to peers and staff
- Participate in a mid-year consultation and assessment process
- Participate in at least one six-week grief support group
- Preach a meditation/homily at one or more monthly department-sponsored memorial services
- Complete CPE research projects
- Complete written assignments including:
- Verbatims
- Reflection reports
- Evaluations of each CPE unit
Research Program
The Saint Luke’s CPE Program is committed to the integration of research and research literacy into the curriculum so our graduates, chaplains, and spiritual leaders are informed about research and its benefits to their ministry. Faculty members introduce research literacy to first-year residents so they are informed about qualitative, quantitative, meta-analysis and data-analysis research.
The residency curriculum includes using Association of Professional Chaplains (APC) webinars about research topics related to spiritual caregiving. The curriculum also includes didactics about how to become research literate and incorporates specific research projects. These didactics are provided by our CPE faculty, Spiritual Wellness staff, a Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences (Nursing College) research professor, and members of the Internal Review Board (IRB). Each student reads three to four research articles, writes a critical review about the articles, and represents their critical review in group.
Second-year chaplain residents are required to design and conduct a research project and to write a well-researched paper, which addresses a particular health and spirituality subject. The expectation is the project will offer a theologically informed spiritual care strategy for the care of patients, family, and staff directly affected by the particular health-related subject, such as traumas and other emergency care, strokes, heart conditions, palliative care, cancer, or ethical issues.
Tuitions and Fees
- Application fee: $25
- Down payment at acceptance: $200
- Tuition: $500 per unit of CPE residency (less down payment) is due the first day of the program.
- Financial assistance is available by application after acceptance into a program. To request assistance, please complete the Ruth/Kolb Endowment Fund Application form on the application page.
Benefits
Residents receive an annual stipend of $39,700, as well as meals while in the hospital, and group health insurance.