The South Eastern Trust’s Chaplaincy Service has been awarded the Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Accreditation Certificate at a European conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of CPE held in Dublin City University.
Lead Chaplain, the Reverend Don Gamble and Senior Manager, Support Services Tony O’Hara, attended the celebrations to mark the significant achievement. The Ulster Hospital is the only hospital in the UK and Ireland with the International Accreditation for their Clinical Pastoral Education Centre.
The Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Centre, which is led by Reverend Gamble, is a 12 week reflective practice process which involves students undertaking 200 hours of supervised classroom reflective practise and 200 hours of placement for the student including clinical placements. Once students successfully complete the process, students will gain a global qualification in healthcare Chaplaincy.
Students who successfully complete two-three units of CPE can then apply for professional registration. The benefit of this global qualification is that it recognises the profession of healthcare Chaplains, who can then work to an internationally recognised standard. This also brings great benefits to the patients, who are visited by the Chaplains during their visit to hospital.
During the event, Reverend Gamble presented his reflection on his own CPE journey from student to supervisor and described the professionalism that the Accreditation Certificate brings to healthcare Chaplaincy training.
Reverend Don Gamble said, “The CPE Centre at the Ulster Hospital gives Chaplaincy students the opportunity to gain an internationally recognised qualification which is transferable and accepted in USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We are delighted that the Ulster Hospital has been recognised with international accreditation.”
South Eastern Trust Support Services Senior Manager, Tony O’Hara, added, “I would like to thank the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education, Ireland and the International Chaplaincy Accreditation Board for the certificate on behalf of the South Eastern Trust. It was a great opportunity to showcase our Clinical Pastoral Education Centre at the event and we are very proud of the work carried out. We are committed to provide regional training to professionalise Chaplaincy Services across health care.”