Pastoral products or pastoral care? How marketplace language affects ministry in veterans hospitals.
The author describes a veterans hospital context of healthcare ministry in which marketplace terminology, adopted institutionally, also impacts the Chaplain Service. He highlights specific elements of this commercialization of pastoral care, such as computerized documentation of "spiritual products" delivered in increments of ten minute units. Noting the power of language both to describe and create realities, the author suggests likely risks accompanying benefits of healthcare chaplaincy carried out on marketplace terms.
Rosell
Tarris D
TD
Central Baptist Theological Seminary, 6601 Monticello Road, Shawnee, KS 66226-3513, USA.
D006787:Hospitals, Veterans; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010327:Pastoral Care; D014481:United States