title: Chaplaincy: a continuum of caring.
abstract: A diagnosis of cancer evokes a patient's ultimate existential and spiritual concerns. These concerns can be quite pronounced in the patient with pancreatic cancer due to the generally advanced stage of the disease at diagnosis and the short life expectancy. The role of the chaplain is to maximize the patient's ability to use religious resources as a source of coping with pain and suffering throughout the course of the disease and its treatment. When a patient enters the health-care setting, the chaplain can perform a spiritual assessment and identify patients at "high risk" as a result of a disturbance in the functioning of their belief system. The chaplain can assist these patients by offering alternatives to beliefs that cause suffering and strengthening beliefs that ward off distress. Chaplains also minister to the needs of the patient's family and members of the medical center. Ritual and discussions about hope or suffering apply equally to staff, patients, and patients' families.
authors.affiliation: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Handzo
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D012068:Religion and Medicine