Spiritual Care

Spiritual support for patients and families

Spiritual Care Services

At Beverly Hospital, we are committed to caring for the whole person as well as the network of caregivers that support every patient. Spiritual care providers serve as valued members of the interprofessional team and are available to provide emotional, spiritual, and religious support to patients, their loved ones and colleagues from all traditions, cultures, and beliefs.

Reasons you might request a visit from spiritual care include:

  • You are struggling with the meaning of your illness or wrestling with difficult treatment decisions.
  • You are anticipating surgery or feeling anxious.
  • You would like someone to say a prayer with you or offer a blessing.
  • You would just like someone to keep you company and listen.

Clinical Pastoral Education

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is graduate-level training that aims to form spiritual care professionals who are both sensitive and responsive to the diverse world we serve. Through experiential learning in the clinical setting, intensive reflection, feedback, small group work, didactics, and individual supervision, students gain insight, deepen self-awareness, and develop interpersonal and interprofessional skills as they integrate learning into their spiritual care practice.

Learning Environment

Beverly Hospital is a robust Level III Trauma Center and community hospital offering a broad range of acute care clinical opportunities. Clinical experiences within the hospital include critical care, progressive/telemetry care, medical/surgical care, pediatrics and special care nursery, oncology, palliative care, maternity, emergency care, and mental/behavioral health.

One of the distinguishing features of the Beverly Hospital CPE program is the availability of various clinical placement sites within the community, including:

  • A day resource shelter for individuals experiencing housing insecurities in the Gloucester area
  • Low-income senior housing communities
  • Assisted living and rehabilitation facilities
  • Mental/behavioral health units at Addison Gilbert and Bay Ridge Hospitals

The decision to serve in a community site placement along with a hospital assignment is made under individual supervision with the educator, and it is based on the student’s areas of interest and experience. This unique opportunity to establish longer, more continuous relationships with people in the community — alongside the shorter encounters experienced during a health crisis in the hospital — provides students with a valuable range of experience designed to serve them well, wherever their path in ministry may take them.

Programs Offered

Beverly Hospital offers two CPE units each year: the Summer Intensive Unit and the Extended Unit. Applications for both units are reviewed as they are received, and students are interviewed and accepted on a rolling basis until the program is full. We strongly encourage applications for the Summer Unit by November 1 and the Extended Unit by April 1.

  • The Summer Unit typically begins the Tuesday after Memorial Day and ends the first week in August. This unit is a full-time, Monday – Friday commitment.
  • The Extended Unit typically begins in late September and ends in early April. One day per week is spent in group education from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, with an additional 10 hours of clinical time per week. The schedule for clinical hours is negotiated together with the educator based on the student’s availability and clinical placements.

Both units require occasional weekend and evening on-call coverage. These shifts are negotiated within the peer cohort early in the unit.

Tuition
  • Tuition for each unit of CPE is $1,000.
  • Application fee: $35
  • Please make checks payable to: Beverly Hospital CPE.
Application

Download the ACPE application here.

Applications will be accepted by email or mail. Please include the application fee if sending by mail, or mail the fee separately to the address below if the application is sent electronically.

Mail or email your application to:

Cheryl McDevitt, MA BCC
Director, Spiritual Care and Education
ACPE Certified Educator
Beverly Hospital
85 Herrick Street
Beverly, MA 01915
Email

We will reach out to your references with a fillable form for them to return to us directly.

For further information please email Cheryl McDevitt or call 978-816-2791.

Annual Notice Regarding Student Records

Beverly Hospital is accredited for Level I and II CPE by:

ACPE, Inc.
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