Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center Clinical Pastoral Education program
Institutional context
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center is a comprehensive, tertiary care and teaching hospital, with a Level I Trauma Center and Level III Perinatal Center (both the highest levels designated by Illinois), serving the needs of the diverse communities of Chicago's North and Northwest Sides. Opened more than 100 years ago, Advocate Illinois Masonic is one of the region's leading providers of health services. With 408-licensed beds, Advocate Illinois Masonic physicians and highly skilled nursing staff care for nearly 18,000 inpatients, more than 152,000 outpatients and 41,000 emergency patients annually, and see 127,000 patient visits at primary care and specialty centers. By continually investing in the medical campus, Advocate Illinois Masonic has equipped its physicians, nurses and other clinicians with the latest technology for diagnosis and treatment of patients in comfortable surroundings designed to promote healing.
Population served
Advocate Illinois Masonic primarily serves the communities on Chicago's north and northwest sides, but draws patients from throughout Illinois with wide economic, ethnic and religious diversity. The patient population includes young professionals, seniors, families with children and recent immigrants. While the primary languages spoken by patients are English, Spanish and Polish, there are other languages spoken as well. Religious backgrounds are just as varied and include Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu, representing the multinational make-up of the surrounding community.
Advocate Illinois Masonic’s more than 850 affiliated physicians and nearly 2,600 nurses, technicians and other employees reflect the ethnic and religious diversity of the patients.
Description of pastoral care department
The Mission and Spiritual Care Department was created when Advocate Illinois Masonic joined Advocate Health Care in 2000. Since that time, the department’s chaplains, representing many denominations, have become a vital part of the healing team at the hospital. The department maintains relationships with congregations representing a variety of world religions. The department is pivotal in supporting Advocate’s mission to treat the whole person, and is one of the keys ways Advocate Illinois Masonic demonstrates Advocate’s heritage as a faith-based health care organization.
The department is lead by the vice president of Mission and Spiritual Care and a staff of six well-trained chaplains who provide 24-hour pastoral/spiritual care to patients/families and staff. The department also advises on clinical ethics issues, and serves as the key link to clergy, parishes and congregations throughout our communities.
Unique educational elements
Advocate Illinois Masonic offers intensive Summer and extended Fall, Winter and/or Spring units of CPE. The programs are designed to be compatible with the academic schedules of most seminaries so seminarians have some flexibility at various times during the year. The extended units accommodate students who cannot take a full time program.
The hospital has a commitment to education. With more than 200 residents and fellows from all over the world, Advocate Illinois Masonic is affiliated with several area medical schools, including the University of Illinois in Chicago. Many programs are offered, including Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and Surgery. In addition, Advocate Illinois Masonic provides a nurse residency program for recent nursing school graduates transiting into the workforce. Advocate Illinois Masonic is a rich environment in which CPE students have an opportunity to work along with residents, medical students and student interns from other disciplines.
The setting allows for a variety of clinical experiences in an acute care center. These include medical, surgical, critical care, emergency, trauma, high-risk maternal and neonatal, obstetrics, cardiology, oncology, pediatrics, psychiatry and substance abuse. CPE students have exposure to most of the clinical areas during their training and on-call rotation.
Applicant information
A non-refundable deposit, applicable to fees, is required to hold a place in any program when the applicant is offered a position. Students may not begin a program until they have complied with the mandated pre-employment physical exam, drug screening and criminal record background check.
For more information
Yonason Meadows
CPE Manager Midwest Region
Email: yonason.meadows@aah.org