Mindy Littlejohn and Father Jim Taylor, a chaplain at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, discuss the ways that spiritual care services aid patients and their families. Photo/Special.
Piedmont Fayette Hospital hosts two Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) units each year for members of the community interested in hospital chaplaincy.
The goal is for all of the students to eventually complete four units and become board-certified chaplains.
When chaplains Jim Taylor and Kim Holman noticed that student Mindy Littlejohn was a licensed professional counselor in another state, they encouraged her to continue in that field in Georgia as well because the two fields are so complementary.
“Counseling skills and chaplain skills go hand in hand,” said Littlejohn. “Both Jim and Kim felt it would be beneficial to be able to offer those skills to our patients and visitors here.”
Littlejohn says she had always been drawn to the title of spiritual care service provider and when she started researching the requirements for that position she saw that most of them required CPE credits. She soon discovered that Piedmont Fayette offered CPE units and signed up.
Since starting, she says she has enjoyed working with the members of the Piedmont Fayette team, everyone from volunteers to members of the palliative care and ICU staff.
“Everyone here is focused on enhancing the healing process for patients and family members, anyone who walks into the building really,” said Littlejohn. “That’s always fascinated me and I’m glad to be a part of the team.”
Spiritual Care Services is just one way that Piedmont Healthcare focuses on caring for patients and their families.
To learn more, visit piedmont.org.
